8-12-02, Sunday Journal
OUR PAY IS THE PRIVILEGE
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
Paul
said something to the people of Corinth that hits me where I live. He was
reminding the Corinthians that he and Barnabas didn't accept pay when they
ministered to them. Then he said, "What pay do I get?...the
privilege." (I Cor.9:18)
I just got home from playing a benefit for a 3 year old boy with cancer. What
pay did I get? The privilege and deep internal reward we experience when we
reach out in love to others. If that little boy can go through those terrible
cancer treatments, I can take my guitar and play some songs to raise money for
him.
Can you think of anything that makes you feel better than to do something kind
and loving for another human being?
What a privilege it is for me to be healthy enough to do something, What a
privilege to do it by making music, one of my chief joys in life. What a joy to
be among people cooking and serving food to help the cause, people just showing
up to listen to the music and eat the food, people who just came to hug the
family and tell them they care.
I have played the Grand Ole Opry and I can tell you, there was more fulfillment
in being on a porch with two dozen musicians playing and praying for a beautiful
little boy to live than there was in standing on that famous stage.
The pay is the privilege and what a huge paycheck it is.
ONE LOAF OF BREAD
You may have noticed I am reading in Corinthians in my daily meditation time and
I found this line in one of the translations of I Cor. 10:17: "There is one
loaf of bread, all of us...we all share the same loaf."
Tell that to some religious fanatic terrorist. He may not see it but he cannot
damage one person without damaging himself and those he loves. Tell that to
someone in a denomination who thinks their way is the only way.
There are over 400 denominations and sects of Christianity alone but there is
only one loaf. There may be a dozen major world religions, but there is only one
loaf of humanity.
There is not an "other" out there for us to hate. There is one loaf.
The terrorist may not remember this fundamental truth but that doesn't keep you
and I from realizing it. We can spread the yeast of our love throughout the
whole loaf and hope for the day that the whole loaf will realize it is one.
So I'm an unrealistic dreamer. Best I can figure, it's only the unrealistic
dreamers who have ever made much of a change in the consciousness of the world.
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