Gawking

Gawking or walking in love, gawking or caring?  Did you know if you are gawking you will trip?  Like stumble or fall tripping?

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not against having or riches here. Not at all.  I am against gawking and wrong heart attitude.

Are you giving  money? Are you actually adopting a child from here? Are you willing to come regularly and often to help out, you know rock babies, change diapers, love the caregivers? Are you here to help and work and love or at least learn more about that? Or are you a gawker?

If so, do not apply. You are not welcome to come as a gawker to the orphanage full of children and babies who desperately need to be loved and as a minimum be cared for. It is a harsh life these children live.

Yes, it had come to that. Gawking.

He put his foot down. My husband. He was the gatekeeper of  who got in. It is not a zoo. These are real life children with real needs and hurts. If you are merely curious, don’t ask.

Now, really. Can you imagine such an attitude?  Yes you can. Because it might be you tripping in. Or instead hopefully you would be one who really is truly caring and compassionate and whose interest is motivated by Christ, one who is walking in love.

But honestly, looking is not the same as being compassionate.

Getting down on the not so clean carpet piece week after week is.  Sharing your money for a great playground piece or a case of formula is.  Did you know bottles for cleft palate babies cost at least 4x what a regular bottle cost.

And I will admit, sometimes the looking, the gawking may turn the heart toward compassion.

I remember my momma was a practical women who believed if you cared you did something, not just talked about it like the women’s group did one day. She told me the story. They were going to help a girl have what she needed for a nice graduation.  In the states at least in the south, graduation is a rite of passage into adulthood. It is important and in those days you just had to have a new dress or suit. It marks a person as accomplished.  “See her? She finished.”  It is no small thing to finish.

Well, they talked and said let’s pray about it.  After a whole lot of nothing but words and no decision or giving, my momma said let’s give her the money.  More talk. Momma wrote a check.  She took her shopping.  She thought all that talk among women who were perfectly able to give the girl several dresses was silly and pretentious.

But honestly, talking is not the same as giving. Looking is not the same as being compassionate. And gawking sure isn’t.

Gawking is rude. Gawking at any person is rude.  Gawking and talking about people without respect toward them is rude.

Idle interest is not the same as caring and compassionate.  Taking action is.  Even praying is action.  And it is not always easy, is it, to walk without tripping?

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children  and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2