One of the first things that you feel upon arriving in an emerging world country is a sense of guilt. I will be writing about that one of these days. One of the things about the last few generations is that we have been remarkable in our ability to forgive ourselves and so that God given sense of guilt can be assuaged pretty quickly even with out repentance but that is a story for another time. One of the Okeyo Scholarship fund travelers is Nichole Anderson from Appleton Minnesota (see post for 5/29/13) and she wrote in her blog the portion quoted below. One of the great questions that occur to me in the mission field and the mercy field needs to be raised and discussed and that is what does Paul mean in 2 Corinthians 8? Paul says he doesn’t want some to be at ease while others are burdened …………..
But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality.
Think about that verse in the context of what Nichole writes
“One of our topics of discussion today has been do we feel guilt for how we are living or do we feel humbled? I believe I feel both. I feel guilt because we have so much while they have so little. We don’t think twice about buying that new iPod, book, or even loaf of bread. I feel humbled because I have the God given resources to me to be able to live the way we do. This is something I have to remember is that yes, even though we do have things the Kenyans do not, that is their way of living and we cannot and should not do anything to change that. They are extremely thankful for what they have; that is how we should live as well. I thank The Lord for the many blessings he has provided me with.”
Nichole is posting daily I believe and you can follow her at………..http://kenyaafricaproject24.blogspot.com/2013/06/guilt-vs-humbled_6.html
It’s more important to be thankful for whatever little you have
than lament for what you lack!