Think twice... cuz it's another day for you and me in paradise...

I greatly enjoy the music of Phil Collins, Genesis and a lot of other '80s pop music that I remember from the early days of MTV. Many songs from those days cut very deep and have held up to the test of time in a profound way.

"Another Day in Paradise" gives us a picture of how we can be so oblivious to reality, having a false sense of "paradise" in the midst of brokenness all around us...

America has always been a place where many immigrants have sought dreams of freedom and prosperity. Sadly, as a nation, we've forgotten what freedom truly is and as biblical principles have been "exiting the building", it's made it harder and harder to know how to love and live among the many cultures that come into our country.

Often arriving in droves, these immigrants are met with the hard reality of seeing that this land of the "American Dream" is often found to be more the land of desolation and broken dreams. We can see the result of much of this in the homeless that fill the streets of not only America, but even in London and other places where people go having high hopes for a better life.

I was thinking back to an evening in London when I encountered a homeless man on the street corner, just hunched over with his hands together, praying... this was moments before I would walk into a large mega church where everybody was well-dressed and socializing as if it was a club or a party. I gave what I could to this man but I still didn't feel I gave enough. He was desperate for something else beyond just financial help and shelter. I think we are all like him. We take for granted how blessed we are with having some kind of financial income, the friends we can be assured we'll see on a regular basis and the shelter that we can always count on.

When all that is stripped away, what do we really have?

After a brief exchange of the few coins I had in my pocket and a few words of encouragement, I eventually made my way over to the church. I must have felt a little bit like Jesus when he went into the temple and saw the merchants going about with anything but the Father's business. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to reveal what church this was, because there are many like this one all over the world. In the basement, or "the crypt", was a huge room devoted to thousands of self-help books that were for sale. I thought to myself, "This huge crypt room could be emptied of all these books and replaced with beds prepared for the many homeless people that need them. That would be a church."

Looking around inside this place, it just seemed like the more knowledge, the better... I felt like I walked into a huge store with people ready to offer me books, church newspapers and any kind of literature that probably spent quite a bit of money to mass produce. And outside, in the streets, are the people that are what church is all about... and we miss the point consistently...

Adapted from Luke 10:25-37 (ESV)

ME: Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

JESUS: What is written in the Law? How do you read it?

ME: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

JESUS: You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.

ME: And who is my neighbor?

JESUS: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back." Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

ME: The one who showed him mercy.

JESUS: You go, and do likewise.