The Least of These

On Wednesday night I taught a lesson on honoring God and I asked the kids what they would do if Jesus were coming to their house for dinner. They said they would cook and clean and decorate. One boy said, “Cook the food with love.” I said, “What would you cook?” He said, “Angel food cake.”

But then I told them how we honor God when we treat others as if they were Jesus. If we honor the “least of these,” it is the same as honoring Him.

Later, there was not enough room on the vans for all the kids so I took some kids home. They got in my car and one of the boys saw my screen and asked me if I had GPS. He said, “Cool…can we use it?” I said no because it would take too long to put the address in. He said OK.

After I dropped them off, I thought about our lesson. And it occurred to me what I had done. I thought, “What if Jesus had been in my car? What if He had said, ‘Would you show me how that GPS works?’” I knew how I would have responded to Jesus. I would have been delighted to show Him how it works. And I would have been pleased that He had asked.

I was so ashamed. “Whatever you do to the least of these you do to me.” I had just said that to the kids. And now I had done it. I had been too busy and in too big a hurry to be done with them and be on my way home. I had treated them shabbily. I had treated Jesus shabbily.

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I posted this quote a few weeks ago on my FB status.

“Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.”
- Mother Teresa

It really got me to thinking about how I interact with the poor. My first thought was that I don’t interact with them because I was just thinking of poor as the homeless or people who need food from the food bank or things like that. And then I thought, “Duh.” I interact with the poor every day. Eighty percent or more of the kids at school get free or reduced lunch and are considered “poor.” So I have been interacting with the poor on a regular basis over the past 31 years that I have been teaching, and I haven’t really thought of it like that very often.

Another place I interact with the poor is in Kids Club on Wednesday night. Many of the kids who come on the van are poor.
So I have decided that I need to think more about this new perspective. How does God want me to interact with the poor?

I have been to several training sessions at school that have helped us to be aware of poverty as a subculture in our society. These sessions have made me think about how people in poverty view the world, what they value, and some of the unwritten rules that they live by.

Now if I were a missionary in another country, I would be aware of the differences between my culture and the country where I am working. It is the same with the poverty subculture. I have to be aware of the differences. If I were in another country, I would not expect the people there to think like I think, or value what I value. But often, I react the wrong way to those in poverty. I think they should behave differently, or think differently and I can be frustrated by their inability to do so.

So I need to have more patience and love.

It’s a work in progress with me. Awareness is the first step.