Mind & Spirit
I Was Hungry, and You...
By Paul Handali
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these
brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
S
erving God is an extremely broad topic. There are
so many ways to achieve it and God calls different
people to serve Him in different ways. Sometimes I
am even irritated by the simple statement “I want to
serve God” because by itself it doesn’t really mean
anything. You want to serve God? How? Definitely
God will call you to do something for Him, but the
Bible gives us a very clear way to serve Him: by
serving other people. No matter what God has called
you to do, serving God requires you to serve other
people in some way or the other.
Serving people doesn’t necessarily mean full time
ministry work, but it involves showing kindness to the
“least of these brothers and sisters of mine” (Matthew
25:40). To find out what it is like to be one of these
“least”, an American pastor named Willie Lyle
received a calling from God to live as a homeless
person for a week. Reluctant as he was, Lyle obeyed.
He noticed how much the homeless people were
looked down upon and realized how much the
homeless people depended on kindness of others. The
sermon that followed this experience challenged his
congregation to show more kindness towards the
homeless and the poor.
We live in a country where about half of the
population lives off $22 a month (about Rp. 200,000).
That’s less than many of our allowances here at
Mountainview. We students spend this money for
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personal pleasures. But about 120 million Indonesians
use this money to survive. If you’re still wondering
how you can serve God, here’s one suggestion. Every
time we go to town, find at least one homeless person
to give some money to. Share your possessions with
those who really need it. Matthew 25 tells us that we
receive our inheritance in God’s Kingdom “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, I needed clothes and
you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I
was in prison and you came to visit me.” Whenever
we do this for someone living in poverty, we serve
God. This passage comes with a warning. What we do
not do for the poor, we also do not do for God.
If we believe the Bible to be true, then we should be
taking this passage seriously. You’re never too young
to serve God. If you stand in judgment before God
and He asks you “Why did you not serve me?”, replies
like “I was too young” will never cut it. You’re not too
young to give what you’ve got to others. They need it
more than you, and they need help from us who fare
better than they do. I challenge not only you but
myself as well. Now that we know why, it’s time to
serve others.