And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
I was loitering just outside of Liverpool Street station this afternoon, taking in the concrete skyline of London’s business district and enjoying the sounds of leisurely weekenders out for a little bit of Sunday sun when I caught the glimpse of a kindly looking middle-aged woman standing next to me. She seemed to have a question in her eyes but after a moment’s hesitation she turned away and I moved on.
“Can you spare me a pound?”, she asked from behind me, and I turned to look at her once again, full in the face. Her’s were warm eyes and she had a gentle face and my heart was drawn towards her. It was a simple enough request. No long-winded tales of a difficult journey or no food on the table. Simple and straightforward.
“I don’t think I have any change,” I said, as I rummaged through my jacket pockets. “Oh, here’s one,” as I plopped the brass into her chubby palm. I nodded my goodbye and sauntered off to find a place to sit. I had a lot of time to kill so I made it all the way to the back of the station before I found a convenient park bench to plunk down and soak in the early spring sun - a welcome relief after months of gray skies and cold drafts. I watched the pigeons flutter about after bread crumbs as amorous couples strolled by hand-in-hand, laughing and snuggling, oblivious to the world around them.
Presently I noticed someone walking towards me, smoldering cigarette in hand. It was the same kindly woman whom I had met a short half-hour before. She came over and sat down right next to me, obviously not recognizing me from our brief encounter. I smiled to myself as I looked away, half expecting her to say something. But she kept silent, taking long drafts and shortening the stick with every breath. “What a waste” I thought, as I considered what employ my hard-earned pound had been put to.
Soon enough a disheveled man walked along, jingling a few spare coins in a calloused hand. He stopped and looked at both of us without saying a word. “Would you like some money?” my seat mate ventured. “Yes,” he answered. I froze, half expecting her to point in my direction and say “ask him.” Instead, she replied, “I’m sorry but I have none”, as she turned her face away (not so much with disdain as with nothing further to offer).
There may be few parallels but the story Jesus told of the unmerciful servant (read Matthew 18 for the full account) came straight to mind. In it Jesus tells of a servant, severely indebted to his king for a lifetime of wages and facing imminent incarceration. When he pleads the master cancels the debt and sets him free but no sooner is he out of the king’s court that he accosts his fellow servant, who owes him peanuts by comparison, and locks him up until he should repay. The king hears of this and the wicked servant gets what’s coming to him. The morale of the story as told by Jesus is that we can expect the same treatment we mete out to others from our Heavenly Father. In his words, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive each other from the heart.”
A similar principle is repeated several times in Scripture such as where the Lord enunciates, concerning giving (Luke 6:38) and judging (Matthew 7:1,2) “with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” We too, worldly as we are, have enshrined this same concept in the so-called Golden Rule - “Do unto others as you will have them do unto you.”
So ask yourself, have you received mercy? Show mercy. Have you experienced love? Give love. Have you enjoyed kindness, graciousness, forgiveness, compassion, friendliness? Do not hold back. Give, give, and give again. No-one puts it better than Paul when he encourages the Ephesians, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32, NKJV, italics mine).
With love,
Doosuur.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
"Wow!"
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
Good thing I got a window-seat today, which is saying a lot considering my recent bad luck with on-flight seating. I’ve recently “suffered” the misfortune of being stuck in the middle seat of economy class and the last time I had a window seat it was smack dab over the airplane’s wing - tough luck. But today, in a large aircraft boasting hardly two dozen passengers I can even afford to take up a whole row as, in fact, I did for my mid-flight snooze.
But it’s such a blessing that right now, nothing obscures my view as I look at out at the world beneath and one word comes close to describing what I can see - breathtaking!!! We are currently flying over a carpet of clouds as we cross French territory, soon to fly over Paris, and I could not help but strain my eyes into the distance to see whether perhaps I could see my Lord coming, “riding on the clouds” like he promised (Mark 14:62). It might have been difficult for an obstinate Jewish council to picture it when he spoke the words with such audacity two thousand years ago but then they hadn’t seen what he had seen - and what I see today.
But then again, this view is just one of many such vistas that have caught my attention. I particularly thrilled at the beautiful slate-grey rocks of the French mountains and the huge sand dunes of the Algerian Sahara. Such magnificent beauty just makes you wonder, “who could have done this?” The signature of a creator God is indelibly etched into His creation and we can hardly escape from the wonder and magnificence of the mind behind all this beauty.
When was your last “wow” moment where you took pause and considered just how great and wise our God is? Scripture is right when it says “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). One can hardly argue with such overwhelming evidence against an intelligent being at the center of it all. And if we agree that Someone could create it all, how powerful must He be? To be Creator of the world - even the way I might conceive of it - He would have to be INFINITELY powerful - omnipotent like some might say. And if He were that great then surely he could bring forth into existence by a word and a breath! And that’s precisely what the Genesis account tells me about the Creator: He spoke and it came into being and by that same word creation is sustained!
I think it’s easiest to see God in the huge and magnificent as well as in the tiny and intricate but He is all around, isn’t He? You only have to watch the instinctive hunting of a worker ant or thrill in the cold and fluffy snow when it falls on your cheek. Smell him in the fresh sweet air that follows the rain and taste his goodness in a cold glass of spring water. God is all around us speaking to us through His magnificent and matchless creation and just like he beckoned to the man in Eden He longs to walk with you in the cool of the garden, taking it all in.
With love, Doosuur
Genesis 1:1
Good thing I got a window-seat today, which is saying a lot considering my recent bad luck with on-flight seating. I’ve recently “suffered” the misfortune of being stuck in the middle seat of economy class and the last time I had a window seat it was smack dab over the airplane’s wing - tough luck. But today, in a large aircraft boasting hardly two dozen passengers I can even afford to take up a whole row as, in fact, I did for my mid-flight snooze.
But it’s such a blessing that right now, nothing obscures my view as I look at out at the world beneath and one word comes close to describing what I can see - breathtaking!!! We are currently flying over a carpet of clouds as we cross French territory, soon to fly over Paris, and I could not help but strain my eyes into the distance to see whether perhaps I could see my Lord coming, “riding on the clouds” like he promised (Mark 14:62). It might have been difficult for an obstinate Jewish council to picture it when he spoke the words with such audacity two thousand years ago but then they hadn’t seen what he had seen - and what I see today.
But then again, this view is just one of many such vistas that have caught my attention. I particularly thrilled at the beautiful slate-grey rocks of the French mountains and the huge sand dunes of the Algerian Sahara. Such magnificent beauty just makes you wonder, “who could have done this?” The signature of a creator God is indelibly etched into His creation and we can hardly escape from the wonder and magnificence of the mind behind all this beauty.
When was your last “wow” moment where you took pause and considered just how great and wise our God is? Scripture is right when it says “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). One can hardly argue with such overwhelming evidence against an intelligent being at the center of it all. And if we agree that Someone could create it all, how powerful must He be? To be Creator of the world - even the way I might conceive of it - He would have to be INFINITELY powerful - omnipotent like some might say. And if He were that great then surely he could bring forth into existence by a word and a breath! And that’s precisely what the Genesis account tells me about the Creator: He spoke and it came into being and by that same word creation is sustained!
I think it’s easiest to see God in the huge and magnificent as well as in the tiny and intricate but He is all around, isn’t He? You only have to watch the instinctive hunting of a worker ant or thrill in the cold and fluffy snow when it falls on your cheek. Smell him in the fresh sweet air that follows the rain and taste his goodness in a cold glass of spring water. God is all around us speaking to us through His magnificent and matchless creation and just like he beckoned to the man in Eden He longs to walk with you in the cool of the garden, taking it all in.
With love, Doosuur
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Soul of a Stranger
Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and body with grief.
Psalm 31:9
You, just like me, have been there. That moment when it pulls strongly at your heart, threatening to eat you up from the inside. It’s “the urge”, that strong desire to go ahead and talk to that stranger sitting next to you. You remember when it happened most recently? I remember most vividly. But you, just like me, resisted and resisted until the moment was lost. And as you parted ways you wondered, what if I had opened my mouth? What if I hadn’t kept so quiet. Might someone’s life be different?
It happened to me today. I was at the train station, clad from head to toe against the bitter wind as it howled through the trees bringing in the cold and rain. The minutes ticked away as I waited for my transport. A young man walked up towards me, squinting as he tried to read the words on the message board. “When’s the next train?” he ventured. “Four minutes”, my curt reply. “Thanks”, he said, and sauntered over to a nearby bench. And then that nagging feeling crept up. I already had the opening, he had broken the ice; all I had to do was strike up a conversation. Well, just as always, I resisted, that is until God stepped in and pulled a “Jonah” on me.
“Hey bruv, you work around here?” It was the young man again. I turned to answer and looked him over. A tall, handsome, Indian man, perhaps my age. I took the chance and engaged him in light conversation. “I work in a sexual health office” I said. He uttered a few choice expletives in response, laughed and said, “so you can help me then!”
As we clambered onto the train and took our places I got to learn that his wife had kicked him out of the house some three months back and he was staying at a friends’. About two years ago she had begun seeing a wealthier man and the marriage had broken down. When I asked him if he had hopes of reconciliation he just shook his head, sadly. It was too far gone.
“I don’t know where it all went wrong,” he said. “We were in love when we got married; it was not arranged.” It was easy to see the hurt he felt because of her betrayal. I could tell he still loved her but there was very little hope in his voice. We gradually went on to talk about more trivial matters and when we felt comfortable enough we exchanged numbers. After that an uneasy silence fell over us as the miles rushed by.
“Doosuur, say something,” it was the little voice in my head. “Grab the opportunity before the moment passes.” This time I was somewhat more willing (the hard work had already been done, no?) and I gently asked, “do you believe in prayer?”
“Yes, indeed, I do. I pray every morning.”
“Good”, I returned, “you ask God to take care of you through the day...?”
“No,” he answered, “I just thank God, I just thank God for another...” and his voice trailed off as he buried his face in his hands, sobbing, and turned towards the window. In my short encounter with this young man I had been offered a rare glimpse into the hurt and pain that fills his soul. It was so much that he did not even have the courage to ask God for anything. The love of his life had left him for another man and he was sad, alone and sorely betrayed.
“It’ll be okay,” was all I could offer. “I will pray for you.”
As my stop rolled by I offered to meet up with him for drinks at some other time and we shook hands and parted. But those tears ... those tears! ... they tore at my heart.
Please join me and pray for this sad soul. God knows his name.
With love, Doosuur.
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and body with grief.
Psalm 31:9
You, just like me, have been there. That moment when it pulls strongly at your heart, threatening to eat you up from the inside. It’s “the urge”, that strong desire to go ahead and talk to that stranger sitting next to you. You remember when it happened most recently? I remember most vividly. But you, just like me, resisted and resisted until the moment was lost. And as you parted ways you wondered, what if I had opened my mouth? What if I hadn’t kept so quiet. Might someone’s life be different?
It happened to me today. I was at the train station, clad from head to toe against the bitter wind as it howled through the trees bringing in the cold and rain. The minutes ticked away as I waited for my transport. A young man walked up towards me, squinting as he tried to read the words on the message board. “When’s the next train?” he ventured. “Four minutes”, my curt reply. “Thanks”, he said, and sauntered over to a nearby bench. And then that nagging feeling crept up. I already had the opening, he had broken the ice; all I had to do was strike up a conversation. Well, just as always, I resisted, that is until God stepped in and pulled a “Jonah” on me.
“Hey bruv, you work around here?” It was the young man again. I turned to answer and looked him over. A tall, handsome, Indian man, perhaps my age. I took the chance and engaged him in light conversation. “I work in a sexual health office” I said. He uttered a few choice expletives in response, laughed and said, “so you can help me then!”
As we clambered onto the train and took our places I got to learn that his wife had kicked him out of the house some three months back and he was staying at a friends’. About two years ago she had begun seeing a wealthier man and the marriage had broken down. When I asked him if he had hopes of reconciliation he just shook his head, sadly. It was too far gone.
“I don’t know where it all went wrong,” he said. “We were in love when we got married; it was not arranged.” It was easy to see the hurt he felt because of her betrayal. I could tell he still loved her but there was very little hope in his voice. We gradually went on to talk about more trivial matters and when we felt comfortable enough we exchanged numbers. After that an uneasy silence fell over us as the miles rushed by.
“Doosuur, say something,” it was the little voice in my head. “Grab the opportunity before the moment passes.” This time I was somewhat more willing (the hard work had already been done, no?) and I gently asked, “do you believe in prayer?”
“Yes, indeed, I do. I pray every morning.”
“Good”, I returned, “you ask God to take care of you through the day...?”
“No,” he answered, “I just thank God, I just thank God for another...” and his voice trailed off as he buried his face in his hands, sobbing, and turned towards the window. In my short encounter with this young man I had been offered a rare glimpse into the hurt and pain that fills his soul. It was so much that he did not even have the courage to ask God for anything. The love of his life had left him for another man and he was sad, alone and sorely betrayed.
“It’ll be okay,” was all I could offer. “I will pray for you.”
As my stop rolled by I offered to meet up with him for drinks at some other time and we shook hands and parted. But those tears ... those tears! ... they tore at my heart.
Please join me and pray for this sad soul. God knows his name.
With love, Doosuur.
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