Thursday, June 19, 2008

Helping Others

So I am reading in the book of Ruth, a neat story, but it struck me as I was reading that Boaz was kind to Ruth even before he knew her personally. Now it says she had a good reputation but still he tells his harvesters to leave extra laying about for her to pick up (she was very poor). WOW what a difference from today. We would run her off and then sue her for what she took in today's culture. Either that or we would tell her "I'm sorry I would like to help but the liability of you being on my property and getting hurt is too great". Boaz then tells her to eat and drink with them and follow them all through the harvest. That's too cool and you know Ruth never tells him "Hey you owe me this I'm poor" or "I'm poor someone take care of me" she worked all morning without stopping and then all evening as well. Then after gathering all she could she beat the stalks to get the grain out and took it home. That's work and a long day of it. So why do we see kindness on the decline? Is it because we don't want to share whats ours? Maybe because so many take advantage of those who do show kindness? Maybe the "burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me" mentality? Just thinking out load trying to figure out where my balance is.

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