Sunday, June 28, 2009

Befriending the Outcasts

Around me, I meet alot of people that are considered "outcast". For example, the geeks, the weirdos, the ah bengs & lians, the super low EQ people, and the list goes on.

They constantly challenge my conviction to love the hard-to-love.

Sometimes I fail. Sometimes, my conviction became confused.

Peer pressure can be daunting if one does not know how to handle.

Before we know it, we have compromised. Our standard of loving people have been reduced to that of worldly love.

Between agape (God's way of love) and phileo (friend's way of love)

At times of test, I sometimes chose the phileo way of love.

Most of the time, it was to much guilt and regret.

Yet I wouldn't do anything to make restitution because it would not be convenient.

Besides, God wants us to be IN the world. My clique of friends!

They are my "world" that God wants me to be in!

I would risk losing my "world" if I befriend those outcasts.

Usually, I self-justify like this. And true enough, they sounded SO right.

So I went on with life with this thought,

though still guilty and remorseful deep down towards such a belief.

Sometimes, I am grateful that I'm not a cell group leader yet.

If I was, what kind of beliefs and doctrines will I be passing on to those under my care???

Haiz. Anyway.

I have a classmate who I respect alot when it comes to doing charitable works. She always go for youth expedition programmes to help build school classrooms and teach students whenever it was holidays. She really has a heart for all the poor children in the rural villages. When I sit beside her, many times I feel inferior because of the way she is so passionate about YEP. Sometimes I think that she has a bigger heart than most Christians! Haha.

But anyway, what is sad is that even she is not willing to befriend the outcasts. To be very honest, none of the 100+ students in the class would! I think whoever would befriend the outcasts in the class would be looked upon as weird and abnormal!

One day, I am simply convicted that none of those in my class - not even that classmate of mine - have displayed what truly is loving people.

I think it is very sad if we only see the well-known needs, such as people from poor backgrounds, rural villages, broken family, etc.....and we don't realize that those considered "outcasts" among us also have very real needs that are longing to be met!

HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE? Those that are truly "hard to love" are those around us. We don't have to go very far to Cambodia or Thailand or Myanmar to find them. They are just within our social circles....

I believe it is not a coincidence that God has placed so many people deemed as "outcasts" around me. And as the world gets messier, there will be more and more such people surfacing. What will my take be then - from this very moment?

11:11 PM

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