Feeling Unappreciated

Helping those who aren't grateful. That's hard. It's feeling like a Good Samaritan, but being told we didn't wrap the bandages well, the donkey ride back to town was more bumpy than the last time he was given a donkey ride and the food wasn't at all like his mother's. You, the "good" Samaritan have a very active piece inside of you that wants to dump them right back out there on the road and see how they feel then.

I recently brought a meal to someone in need. It took me awhile to find the place. And not the best part of town. I graciously handed her the bag of food.

Within a few minutes she told me how much she liked wheat homemade bread. (I brought white). And, "Ooh I feel like some fruit."

"Well, I brought some apples in here."

"Oh apples?? Honey, I'm talking about juicy peaches, now those are my favorites."

Really, I couldn't stay offended because she had so little tact that I just knew we'd be raised in two different worlds. The area she lived in was enough to tell me that too.

But it did make me take a step back for a minute. "Why I am doing this then? Am I taking a meal because I want to be appreciated? I want to be recognized? Am I not doing it simply to help?"

And also a rhetorical question, "Should I only help people who I judge to need it, want it, and appreciate it?"

This analogy came to mind. A doctor in the E.R. is brought a patient. The doctor judges from the patient's appearance and medical chart to be a rough person. Maybe even a bad person. But this patient is on the brink of death. What if the doctor denied him care because he thought the patient didn't deserve it? Or what if he was denied care simply because he thought the patient wouldn't appreciate it? How cruel! How dangerously conceited!

Of course, the doctor is there to help and save everyone he can. That's his job.

So too are we meant to help and save everyone we can, and not to be judges over them. That is meant for Him who is far more qualified.

So as I struggle with sometimes feeling unappreciated I must remember to consider that there is more to my service that just giving people what they want. It is about my relationship with my Lord:

31 ¶ When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.