all for love's sake became poor...

i'm reading the book of james. it's a good one :) in james 2, the last verse he says "faith without deeds is dead." i'd read this plenty of times before, but it stood out to me the other night.

last night i went and saw the african children's choir, and they sang "here i am to worship." a line in the song says "all for love's sake became poor." i've noticed recently the number of songs that talk about Jesus and the poor, him being the God of the orphaned, the oppressed, the sufferring. even patty griffin says "jesus went to live with the poor" in Chief.

now allow me to tie these two random thoughts together. i feel as though since i've been home i've kinda sensed a "you did your time" vibe from people. like, that was good, but now it's time to be here, get a job, settle down, all that. but the thing is, Jesus went to live with the poor, and if i'm not doing anything (deeds) my faith is dead. why is there this attitude of entitlement, of doing our own thing and following Jesus when it's convenient? i dunno, i think that i've just had several people say to me that maybe my heart for the poor will change, or that the rich need Jesus too.... that may be true; but what would most people choose, a life of ministering to the wealthy from the comfort of their homes, or living among the poor and sharing Jesus' love with them?

just things i've been thinking about.

the african children's choir was great. adorable, really. they talked about africa, about the hundreds of thousands of children who have aids or live in extreme poverty, whose parents have died because they have no food or diseases that could have been treated. maybe i should go there? :) who knows...