Avoid being a fake time will tell the difference

Motivation for the week of 25th August 2019 – by Rev. Fr. Raymond Osei Tutu

During World War 2, the Allies sometimes made wooden tanks or trucks to trick the enemy and draw their fire. Enemy planes flew overhead and they couldn’t tell the difference so they would waste their bombs. It worked for a while. At least till the Germans started dropping wooden bombs. The Germans also had a sense of humour, but the more important lesson here is that too many of us are fakes and only time will tell the difference. We are like the man selling Rat Poison with the advert that says “99.99% good food”. Good food for who? Deception does not come overnight; it is drip-fed into our lives in small doses, over a long period of time.

In recent times I have been deeply moved by a book I chanced upon. The book narrates the tragic story of the late Bob Pierce, founder of the well-known organization, World Vision. The story of Bob Pierce is the story of triumph and tragedy. Few books have ever touched me as this one did. By the time I was nearing its final pages, I was in tears. Bob Pierce was a deeply emotional man. He was a man with tremendous compassion for children and people in poverty. Just think about the international relief organization World Vision or if you have heard about also, the Samaritan’s Purse. He had written in the flyleaf of his Bible, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.” The tender narrations found in the book are all written candidly by Bob’s daughter, Marilee Pierce Dunker. It is a must-read for today’s Christian who hides under the guise of Christianity to neglect the very basics of love and respect for humanity be it in matters of gender, age, race or status. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 23:23? For those of us in any form of ministry in the Church, we need this book to remind us that nothing can replace our vows to the Lord.

Bob Pierce travelled the world with his Christian relief and development organization – World Vision – advocating courageously on behalf of those whom the scripture calls “the least of these”. However, it is well-documented in the book that he was a cantankerous absentee father-husband and hostile towards his wife and children. How is that possible? Don’t you know friends, bosses, spouses or ministers, who do “all the prayers” and yet relate badly with their significant others? Within weeks of his 1978 death from leukaemia, Bob Pierce’s daughter Marilee Pierce-Dunker penned the book that I chanced upon entitled “Man of Vision, Woman of Prayer” in which she shared the good that her father accomplished abroad, as well as the pain that his private evils inflicted on their family.

When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. This week, we can all reflect on not just the good that we do to people, but also the evil that we are oblivious of. God Help Us All!

May your Week not be Weak but with Him! I send you my prayerful wishes for the week. (By Fr. Ray® VR.it)*

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