The Charity Case

People often times think of charity cases as people who are pathetic and desparately in need of someone to preserve their existance with some act of giving.  Some people pull out a check book or say a quick prayer, and trust me when I say those things are helpful, but charity is much more than that according to the Bible.  Charity can suffer for a long time and still be kind.  Charity is humble and honest.  Charity is everything that Christ did for us with his life, death, and resurrection.  Charity is something that we all need.  I need for people to be kind to me when I get on their nerves.  I need people to appoach me with humility when they see that I am going through something.  I need people to not rejoice in evil things, but to rejoice in the truth.  I need people who will bear with me, and believe in me.  If we were all honest I think that we would say that we are in need of people like this in our lives. We need charity, and we need to take on the cause of charity with other people.  It is this charity of the heart that shows God's love.  True charity comes first from our desire to see someone else whole, and then becomes the actions that we take to be a part of their solution. This why I am not ashamed to be a charity case.  When I think about it we all are Charity's cases.  Love chases us down and presents itself over and over again.  I know that to be true because God is love and he presents himself to everyone.  Try to think of a time when you felt a pull of love on your life.  Was it in something that someone said or did?  Was it in the quiet moments of your life or was it in the heat an impending disaster?  Somewhere in your life God has touched you and me to say "I love you".  Don't miss those moments for the sake of pride.  We all need charity to help us get through.  We are not made to be self sufficient.  We are made to be relational.  We are made to help each other, and true charity doesn't look for a way to benefit from being needed.  Charity just steps in to say "I care".  There is no shame in being cared about.  The only shame is when you don't care about anyone else. To be loved is to be blessed, and to love is to be a blessing.