What If God…Blog

Many may recognize the words that make up the title of this article to be the beginning of a quote attributed to Jesus. The context is a discourse Jesus is having with his disciples in the course of speaking about separating the ‘sheep’ from the ‘goats’. He presents a parable of servants who are before a king, and being told that they fed him when he was hungry, gave him water when he was thirsty, clothed him when he was naked, and tended to him when he was sick and in prison, and the servants respond in a confused state, not knowing when they did these things for the king. He responds: whatever you have done for one of the least of these, meaning the meekest of my followers, you have also done these things for me. On the other hand, the parable goes on to speak of those amongst the servants who are cursed because they did not feed him when he was hungry, did not clothe him when he was naked, and did not tend to him when he was sick or in prison. Likewise, these ask the king when did they see him in need and not do these things for him, to which he responded: whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.

The world is full of people with self-righteous indignation , feeling that they have earned their station in life and having no sympathy those who have fallen on hard times. They feel justified in scorning those who may suffer unemployment or even the loss of a home, often claiming that the reason must be some lack of effort on the part of the sufferer. Many times these very same people falsely claim that no one helped them on their way up, usually forgetting favors from family, friends, teachers, and employers who gave them a break of undeserved kindness along the way. Perhaps at some point in time, you may have been this person who has carried a bit of self-righteous indignation. It is common to hear those who are full of such self-righteousness to claim that they are blessed by God, or that they are righteous individuals, or even to hear them bragging about how conscious they are and what their elevated conscious state has done for them, yet these same individuals are never around when it comes time to lend a hand to those in need. Some give, but only to those who are of their particular culture or belief system.

While there is no excuse for a lack of honest effort, there are plenty of individuals who have no home, no food, little clothing, and scant opportunity to change their condition. Regardless of whether we are largely self-made or not we should never be above offering a hand-up to those we see who are less fortunate, or simply have fallen on some hard times. Each of us have at the very least accepted the assistance of our parents, parental figures or caretakers as we grew up when we were unable to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, shelter ourselves, or even clean ourselves properly. While we look at these parents or parental figures as being “ours”, it was still a blessing that we had them for not everyone does. Further, most of us have no conscious recollection of choosing our parental households as infants arriving in this world, so the fact that these parents or caretakers were “ours” was our stroke of fortune. I say this to emphasize that we have all been vunerable, if at no other time then in childhood, and we should remember this and always keep an attitude of gratitude and seek to help our fellow man and woman as we walk this journey of life. Gratitude and gracious giving will even help us receive what we desire for ourselves, because Universal law causes a gap when we expend energy to give that is filled reciprocally in some form or fashion from either the source we gave to or another. Riches can be gained in many ways but the riches, both material and immaterial, that can be gained by gracious giving comes with the by-product of peace for the giver. It is the prosperity of the giver that includes love, peace, and happiness and distinctly separates them from the goats of the world that never look to help anyone and never seem to have any peace despite their relative wealth. Make a point to be a giver with an attitude of gratitude, knowing that the world can only improve if we help one another, and not only by always giving a fish, but helping to teach those in need how to fish for themselves.

Written by Adeeb Shabazz

Metaphysical Minister and author of "What If God Were One Of Us?-2nd Edition".

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