"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'-Jesus, in Matthew 25:35-40

     One of the great temptations of comfortable living is the myth that we're comfortable because of our own labors. This leads to another great temptation, the belief that those who aren't comfortable are always to blame for their own circumstances.

     Some people, including far too many Christians, think the poor are poor because they didn't try hard enough; and the homeless are homeless because they want to be, or because they're lazy. Even the most mature of today's followers of Jesus find themselves buying myths like "the unemployed are out of work because they don't want to work badly enough", or "they didn't train themselves well enough", or they "aren't looking hard enough for jobs". This kind of thinking frequently includes self-congratulations for "having avoided those traps" in our own lives.

     But when the roof caves in on us or someone we love or respect, we quickly learn that struggle and trials are not always the result of sin or negligence or laziness or lack of effort or initiative.

     In Matthew 25, Jesus makes it clear He's going to turn our thinking upside down with the questions He asks us in our eternal performance evaluation. Questions like:

     To counter these hard times, God promises never to leave Christians to face their trials and struggles alone-ever! He also promises us that the memory of every dark hour we spend here on Earth will be swept away in eternity, overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of pain-free, sorrow-free, joy-filled hours that mark the beginning of our lives in heaven. "Persevere," Jesus says as He firmly plants Himself alongside us, a constant reminder that once we accepted His gift of grace, we could count on His promise never to leave us or forsake us.

     "Stand," Jesus says, when the culture seduces us with comfort and wealth; "Hold on," He says, when the winds of pain and loss and trial sweep across our broken hearts and wearied bodies, pinning us between what we once believed were a rock and a hard place, but which we soon discover is the Rock, anchoring our soul to His, knitting our story into the tapestry of His story.

     "Persevere", though, is more than merely staying upright when life tries to knock us down. When our story unites with His, we are empowered.even commanded.as His ambassadors.to look to our left and right for those among us who have not yet found hope; or who have lost sight of it because they're too hungry, too thirsty, too lonely, too alone and too battered even to cry out to God. It is then that we discover His strength is ours now to draw on; that His model of sacrifice and service is the template for our lives, too.

     "Do you love Me?" Jesus asked Simon Peter three times, and each time Peter said yes, then Jesus responded by saying "Feed My sheep." To meet Jesus is to know His love; to know His love is to share it. We must never allow ourselves to stand by and watch others drift away from salvation because the gnawing ache in their stomachs drowns out every other thought; we whom Jesus frees from the fear of "what's out there after this" must never stand by and watched the parched throats of those who thirst throttle their pitiful pleas for help.

     Jesus never tells us we can't race to the top; never tells us that a job half-done is good enough; never tells us that gathering wealth or working hard are bad things. Only when the race blinds us to those faltering around us; only when the job becomes a way to serve ourselves instead of others; only when the clanging of our coins drowns out the cries of the needy God places in our path; and any time anything displaces Him as Lord and Savior, then in each of those circumstances it is time to ask Him to bring us back to the realization that all we are; all we achieve; all we accumulate are gifts from a loving God offering us the chance to see and love and serve others alongside Him; a practice run, of sorts, to the days in eternity when God will walk among us as we labor, love and serve in a now-perfected Creation.