Look around you and answer this question?

(Be Kind to Humankind Week)

 What do you see? Do you see what God sees? Do you see what the world sees? For that matter, do you see anything at all or are you too absorbed in yourself?

 Jesus utters some of the most life-transforming words you will ever hear in Today’s Verse. He doesn’t call us to read a book, watch a video but to “look on the fields” or “look at the condition of humanity around you.” Interestingly, it is as if Jesus believes you will alter your priorities if you properly recognize the spiritual need of this lost and dying world around you.

 Just look…when was the last time you took the time to look?

 Some years ago two steamships collided off the English coast. Six hundred people perished. A great number of people were tossed into the water. Many were drowning; many awful things were happening.

 Two ferrymen had just pulled their boats up to the shore and were headed home for the night. They both heard the collision and the cries of the people. One ferryman tied up his boat and said, “I am not going anywhere to help anyone. I am going home,” and he walked to his house.

 The other ferryman, though, untied his boat, rowed out to the collision, and began pulling people into the boat. This man filled his boat and rowed the people to the shore. He did all that he could.

 Sometime later the authorities called in these two ferrymen. They said to the first one, “Sir, are you an Englishman?”

 He said, “I am.”

 They asked, “What did you do when you heard the collision?”

  He said, “I walked home. I walked away. I was tired.”

 They asked, “Are you ashamed?”

 He answered, “I am so ashamed of what I did that I cannot live with myself. This was an awful tragedy and I am sorry that I walked away and never helped a soul. I regret to say that I thought only of myself.”

 The authorities turned to the other man. “Sir, what about you?”

 The man said, “When I heard the cries of the people I untied my boat and rowed out. I packed my boat full of women and children and when it was full, I began rowing toward the shore. As I rowed I was crying, ‘Oh, God, give me a bigger boat so that I can save more people!’” He then broke down in tears and said, “I helped all that I could…all that I could.”

 One man looked and saw the need and gave it his best effort.

 That’s the kind of Christian this world needs!

 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. John 4:35

Tom Swartzwelder was born again at the age of nine in an old-fashioned revival meeting. Tom received his B.A. from Tennessee Temple University and his M. Div from Luther Rice Seminary. He has pastored for nearly forty years in both bi-vocational and full-time roles. He provides practical how-to-do-ministry resources for the disciples of Jesus Christ at http://www.godsgreenhouse.net. Tom’s latest book is “God Speaks–Today!”

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash