Do you brag about your faith?
Do you profess that you love God?
I do, but how do we act?
My bride, Anna and I are on the hunt for toilet paper for the past couple of days. We don’t hoard, but people are desperate. shelves are bare. Our neighbors are in survival mode. We sometimes forget that we are not alone on the planet. We are being tested.
Our world’s health crisis seems to never end. However, if you ever lived on the Gulf Coast of the United States you know that the shelves of grocery stores can run low of certain items. The panic of a hurricane could cause shortages every time a storm brewed in the Gulf of Mexico. It happened two or three times a year when we lived in Florida. Eventually the storm subsided and the shelves refilled.
Recently, I was talking to an older man in an Oklahoma grocery store who was so surprised by the shortages on the shelves. Our present home state never experienced such shortages. He, himself, never lived anywhere that experienced panic buying. The inconvenience of no electricity or toilet paper in Florida summer’s is minor in comparison in today’s world.
With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.
If I follow Christ all the patience in the world will not stop the hoarding and yes, we may run out of toilet paper. However, we do have heroes in our world who are tested more than us.
My daughter, Emily, is a nurse on a COVID-19 unit at a local hospital. We are proud of her. Her and all the staff at hospitals are really tested. Others like grocery clerks who work at all hours to restock shelves, truck drivers, mail carriers and first-responders are all heroes in our world today and may not express their Christianity but certainly practice their faith by their actions.
Too often we take people for granted and don’t respect what they do for us. Jesus in our Gospel was also underappreciated.
“Is he not the one they are trying to Kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ:But we know where he is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, “Your know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.”
How do we act in time of trial? Sometimes unexpected heroes come to the surface. We under appreciate them, just like Jesus, but they are showing their faith by actions. Cafe Gratzzi in Saint Petersburg, Florida is one of the finest Italian Restaurants in the State is cooking free meals for all first responders every day. They do it at no charge and prefer no donations. Pray for these heroes.
In the Psalm today, Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the Lord delivers hims.
In this time of crisis there is Christ’s example of patience and faith that we will be delivered. Thanks to all the unexpected heroes in the world today. We also have the victims and their families in China, Italy and the rest of the world who have lost loved ones. Also, pray for the humble people who keep us together.
God Bless You Always
Bob Burford
