“IMAGINE ME”

November 3, 2007 at 6:04 pm · Filed under American History, Baptist, Black Children, Black Family, Black History, BLACK HISTORY WOMENS HEALTH, Black Male Children and Poverty, black male teens, Catholic...all denomiations---How do we teach Love?, Christain Faith and Love in Action, Faith, Family in Crisis, Full Gospel, Health, Holy Rollers, HOME ECONOMICS, Human Rights Issues, Lover your neighbor as yourself, Lutheran, Methodist, Middle Class Dilema, Poverty in America, religion, Religion on the streets, sanctuary?, Save the Children, SELF REFLECTION, Selfesteem, Shakers, single parenting, Street Ministry, Views from Within, What would Jesus do?, Where does one sit when you enter a church and tagged: "Love your neighbor as yourself", all denomiations---How do we teach love?, Baptist, Catholic, Faith, Faith Based love in action, Lutheran, Methodist, Picking out the best seat in the house of a church...is, poverty, religion, Spiritual, True Christianity, What is a True, What would Jesus do?

In Luke Chapter 14 verses 7 to14,  Jesus describes how to conduct yourself when you are invited to a wedding.  He explains that you do not sit in the best seat in the house,  (church,  temple etc.) instead sit in the worse seat.  That way if someone of “more importance arrives”  you do not have to change your seat.  Verse 11 states it plainly, “IF YOU PUT YOURSELF ABOVE OTHERS, YOU WILL BE PUT DOWN.  BUT IF YOU HUMBLE YOURSELF, YOU WILL BE HONORED.”  

Then Jesus went on to explain from verse 12 to verse 14: “When you give a dinner ora a banquet, don’t invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors.  If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back.  When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  They cannot pay you back.  But God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death.”

I constantly think of the disadvantaged.  I constantly see the disadvantaged.  One day I was going into Manhattan to practice in one of my orchestras.  I came over the Triboro Bridge and landed smack in the middle of Harlem.  I exited the  FDR DRIVE by mistake I saw a woman between the age of 25 and 30.  Her dark brown   skin  was marbled looking.  She had lesions on her skin…Her mouth was cracked and painful looking.  I was stopped at the red light.  I knew what was about to happen.  I told my son to take out some money for the woman.  She came to my window—I gave her what little change I had left.  She told me “Thank you and God bless you!”   I said, “Look I could be where you are—-any one could be.  I have to answer to God for my actions.”—She looked at me and then replied–“You gave me money and the car in front is a Mercedes and that person would not give me anything.  I replied—“Because that person has more than you and I both—they think that they will not one day have you condition or mine—or may be that person does even care….But any way God Bless you  and take care of yourself.”  I drove off in my ten year old care with only twenty dollars in my pocket….wondering what would that woman do for the rest of her life—what disease was she plaqued with and where would she end up by the end of the year or in a day?  Sad—but just like a flower it blooms and withers away.  I pray for the world and my own child’s future.  Time seems slow when we are at work and hate our jobs….but soon our children grow up,  leave us  and then we are moved into nurseing homes and then whither and die like a delicate flower..   So to those in beautiful Mercedes,  Lexus cars —what ever you drive—remember life is short—live to the fullest—but don’t forget the down trodden—-take the “lesser seat at the wedding—-because you do not know who will be placed in that seat—-MAYBE THE WOMAN ASKING FOR A HANDOUT AT THE STOP LIGHT IN HARLEM —instead of you!!!!  —-Think on good things and build bridges–Don’t destroy!!!!

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