The Few vs. The Many

Today, I was waiting for my sister to finish her chores and listening to the radio when Focus on the Family came on. The featured speaker happened to be Andy Stanley, and he was talking about how we as Christians should respond to the needs of people around us. One of the things he said was that we have all grown up thinking that we have to be fair to everyone, to the point where if we cannot help everyone, we simply do not help anyone. The problem is that instead of even one person receiving our compassion and aid, no one does. His challenge was that we should choose to meet the needs of the one, rather than giving nothing to everyone.
So, as I am preparing to go to India, where I will most definitely be seeing hundreds of people living in poverty and children who do not have the opportunities afforded the majority of Americans, this concept of meeting the needs of the one instead of giving to no one is quite convicting. I know that this is a choice I will have to make each day - whether I will love and serve the few, or refrain from doing anything at all. It is also a choice I will likely have to make over the next several months as I prepare for my trip, and in the months and years afterwards as I move into the next part of the journey God has placed me on.
The decision to serve the one rather than doing nothing for anyone is also one that each of us will have to face at some point or another. No matter what the issue we are faced with is, whether it is poverty, human trafficking, or whatever else, we have a choice to make. To love and serve the few, or sit back and do nothing at all for anyone. What will you choose to do?
"Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself call out and not be answered."
 - Proverbs 21:13 (ESV)

We are the hands and feet of Jesus, and it is our mission to reach out in love and serve the hurting world that we live in. 

"He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?"
- Micah 6:8

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.

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