A Drive into the Country Yesterday

Yesterday we drove through miles of rich farm land south of our town. We saw the wealth of agriculture, including newly sprouted corn only several inches tall, with some huge farm business buildings, equipped to handle bountiful crops and much livestock. Occasionally there were also huge lawns of freshly mowed spring grass, leading up to mansions, some seemingly built for tribes of families.

We were going to a viewing of a young girl who had died, apparently of an illness and in a road accident, a near-cousin to my wife. We sat there for likely close to an hour as some hundreds of people filed through to console the parents and relatives and to view one more time. I sat there among those hundreds, most of the men dressed in appropriate white shirts according to their religious costume. I felt a bit out of place, dressed a bit more casually. I was reminded how I was among another formally dressed group some time ago, where I was among the very few dressed in a white shirt. How different the costumes of these who practiced similar distinctiveness, however contrasting on that point.

But what really caught my attention was that no doubt, the great majority of these were dedicated to farming and probably not to share the Gospel with all their wealth and strength and Spiritual commitment. I felt awed and burdened that these all deeply religious and spiritual people had such a commitment of faith and abundance of gifts of farming and had build up for themselves a good and pious living. I wonder if their church has any programs to help the world in its great needs of the Gospel and basic needs of survival. Perhaps some participated in relief sales, where they may still get some reward as they give to help the needy.

I have no right to judge, but how does this look to God? I don't know. It is not my business. But I ached to see all this spiritual and material wealth stacked high while many in the world are starving for the Gospel, if not for daily existence. We prayed about this this morning, but I hardly have faith that things will ever change with these people. I hope my vision of yesterday was faulty, that they are doing so much more than it appeared. Again, I am not the Judge. But I also have to consider my priorities. Even as we drove home from there, a message was texted to us from a family in Belize who is often needy and asking for help. I just can't quite get over the experience of yesterday as we went to that viewing, and the traveling through those mounds of wealth, and the apparent treasure of the Gospel stacked there for the few, who have a long heritage of wanting to be faithful to God, and untouched by the world.