I read a post today on my Facebook newsfeed, that was really convicting to me. A girl on my friends list was talking about all of the trashy people at the Salem fair. You guys know the people she was talking about. The ones who pick up welfare checks on the first and are broke by the fifth. The ones who sell their foodstamps for drug money, have their hair and nails done while their kids are looking scraggly. The ones who will cuss you out for looking their way. The ones who cuss me out at work on a daily basis.The ones most of us hardworking Americans do our best to just avoid. But these "trashy people" are also the ones I find God asking me to pray for alot more often. These are the ones I am asking God, begging God, screaming to God, to let me see through His eyes everyday. These are the people whose stories we do not know. Whose pain we have not felt and whose burdens we have not carried. These are the people God loves and who Jesus would be fellowshiping with if he were here in the flesh. Now let me pause for a moment to say I am not writing this condescendingly. I have struggled with both sides of this issue. I am not going to lie or be self-righteous here. When I go into a grocery store at the beginning of any given month and see a young woman cussing her kids, talking on her cell phone, going through line with a cart full of food I can't even afford to buy after busting my tail all week, pulling out her EBT card and splashing attitude all over the place,I struggle with the same negative thoughts and feelings as the rest of you. I struggle hard. I have made some of the same comments I saw online today, and felt the same disgust that was so obvious in my friend`s post. But seeing it there in black and white helped me in a couple of ways. 1. I have really been praying diligently for God to help me love people more..... particularly the least of these. And I am finding that slowly, and painfully, God is answering my prayers. What I saw today made me disgusted not with those trashy people but with myself. Disgusted by the judgement I have held over people I don't even know. 2. I have had a real issue with religious people for some time now. No real surprise to people who read my blog, and reading that post today I thoght this is what I dislike about "Christians". And like a whisper in my ear, my next thought was "How are you any different" ? My God, you are right! I have been irritated by people for doing the same thing I have been, and still am guilty of. You know, the only thing that will ever make a differencein the life of these "trashy people"is love. And if those of us who have experienced the love of God can't show them kindness and respect, how do you think they will view God through us? They will view Him as judgmental, self-righteous, and ready to strike out against them We are supposed to be the bearers of God here on earth, and looking at others (and my own) thoughts and attitudes today, I think we might just be the "trashy people" and not them!
