Holy Club 5

Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

This is a big question to start some personal reflection. Depending on the day, I often score three out of three (which is not a good thing!). So much of the answer to this question is tied up with our formative years - did we learn unhealthy patterns of thinking about ourselves when we were young from which we need to be set free?

The Holy Club placed a high priority on helping the poor - the members tried to spend time every week helping people less fortunate than themselves. Often this entailed prison-visiting - convicts in the eighteenth century suffered enormously, the Holy Club members offered  food, clothing and support.

It's been popular in Christian circles for some time  to do random acts of kindness or to be a blessing to people we meet.

I find it easy to bless some people - particularly the people I like (and who may return the favour). There are others who its much harder to offer help to:

• Those whose problems are self-inflicted
• Those who never seem to get any better and soak up enormous amounts of our energy
• Those who for a variety of reasons are just unloveable

Our willingness to love and help these people is one of the real tests of 'holiness'.

Loving people is not an option or a secret evangelistic strategy - it's us being who God created us to be. It's fantastic when people respond to our acts of love by wanting to know more about the source of our love and becoming followers of Jesus when they find out he's the one who makes it possible. However, that should never be a condition of our love - God's love to us is unconditional and that's what we share.

Bible passage to meditate on: Matthew 25:31-40