If you ever get bored just ride for awhile on the Paris subway. It’s better than the zoo!
One day I was standing in the front of a subway car next to a young fellow who looked like an Alter-globalist. At least that’s what they looked like on television.
According to Wikipedia: “Alter-globalization (also known as alternative globalization, alter-mundialization — from the French “altermondialisme” — or the global justice movement) is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not adequately promote, human values such as environmental and climate protection, economic justice, labor protection, protection of indigenous cultures and human rights.”
Did you get that ?
The young man held a mangy-looking German Shepherd on a leash. This poor dog looked like he had been on short rations for a long time. His master looked a lot like him, except he had long hair with a few braids, if I remember correctly.
A pitiful guitar completed the costume.
As the metro rumbled towards the next stop, he started his spiel, asking people to help him, I forget his reasoning. An older lady was seated facing him and listened to what he had to say. Why he finally finished she said, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
The young fellow went off like a moon shot and started to yell at her. Finally, he went toward the back of the car but returned to yell that she was part of the system that caused the world’s problems or something like that.
The metro stopped and he got off, but as we pulled out he ran alongside the window, still yelling at her.
He had decided that world peace could wait until the next day, I suppose.
As for me, I wanted to applaud the grandma.
If she had given him five euros he would have been happy but she gave him her opinion instead.
Isn’t it strange that he wanted people who belong to the “system” that he detested to feed him and his dog? The world on its’ head, huh?
Do you want to know something else that bizarre ?
People take God’s blessings just as if He owed them and they never dream of saying, “Thank you!” They write “deep” books explaining that science “proves” that God doesn’t exist. They flaunt his law and make fun of his justice.
They accept his blessings all the while refusing to recognize his existence and especially his authority in their life.
” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ” (Matt. 5: 44, 45, NIV)
Even Worse !
You want to know what’s even worse than the ingratitude of the people of this world ? It’s when someone who knows the Lord gets mad at him and forgets those blessings without number that God showers on him each day.
Though most versions translate this verse a bit differently, I like the King James version for this text, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.” Ps. 68:19
We forget don’t we ? I wonder sometimes if I don’t need a French grandma in the subway to tell me, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Lord, forgive us our lack of thankfulness. Give us the power to tear our hearts and minds from what bugs us and to fix our eyes on the One who has given and continues to give us so much. Every day!