11/26/15 Thanksgiving Grif.Net - No Envy
Robert Griffin
[from the book Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow]
I paced back and forth as I waited for my Polish sister-in-Christ to arrive. I was nervous because her family had never had even a small apartment there. I had visited Eva-With-No-Home in her in-laws’ apartment as I helped train them in starting ministries to Polish women. They had so very little, but they were avid for the WORD of GOD!
Our home was far from palatial, but compared to those I’d seen in Poland, it was a mansion. Many times I had wanted a bigger house, but today I felt guilty that God had given me so much.
Finally Eva and little Monika arrived. They would stay with us for two days, and then travel to visit the family Eve had lived with as a college student. As we toured our house, Eva smiled and said, “How beautiful, Linda. Everything is lovely.” No greed or envy clouded her face.
I had a knot in my stomach as I mentally reviewed her housing dilemma. Because there were no apartments available for young couples in Communist Poland, Eva and her husband Mirek and little Monika had lived like gypsies during the three years I’d known them. First they lived with Mirek’s parents, then Eva’s. Back and forth, from one apartment to the other. Now Eva was pregnant with their second child, and the family still did not have a home. If our situations had been reversed, I’m quite sure MY face would have been marred by envy.
After dinner, Eva said she was going upstairs to wash our Monika’s diapers. “Eva!” I said, “You do not need to wash your daughter’s diapers by hand! I have a washer and dryer. Feel free to use them!” Eva replied that she was used to hand washing, and it wasn’t a problem.
After Monika was asleep, Eva and I sat and talked. I asked her the question that had been roaming around in my heart all day. “When you see all the modern conveniences here for the mothers of small children – washing machines, dryers, disposable diapers, baby food in jars – how do you feel? Life for you in Poland is so much more difficult.”
Her response pierced my heart: “Linda, when I lived here in the West, I observed Western women. They have so many THINGS they think they don’t NEED God. . .”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
"Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!"