"Bear ye one another's burdens and
so fulfill the law of Christ." - Galatians 6:2

Even though I didn't realize it at the time, God was teaching me some valuable truths about the Christian life.  He was personally showing me some things that I needed to know in order to live for Him.

Shortly after plague #2 exited my life plague #3 began.  My parents moved to just outside of Chicago.  Because I didn't have the money to live on my own, I moved in with my grandparents.  Now, my grandparents were wonderful people, (they have both went on to be with the Lord) but they lived in horrible conditions.  They had lived most of their lives in virtual poverty.  They were simple folk, never having much of anything in this life.  The dirty floors, the roaches and the bugs didn't seem to bother them very much.  The foul smell within their dark, damp house didn't seem to be a concern to them.

But, to an 18 year old young man...that's a different story.  I appreciated their generosity and enjoyed my time visiting with them, but the conditions were almost unbearable at times.  I slept in a back room on an old mattress in the floor.  For the most part the roaches and bugs didn't bother me back there.  But, the frogs, the frogs were a different story.  That's right frogs.  Usually between 15-20 of them made there way through the many holes in the house and hopped throughout the kitchen.  Each night, before bed, my grandfather and I would literally get a broom and sweep them out of the house.  It became kind of fun, "Grandpa are you ready to put the frogs out?"

What was really funny was the night I came in from church and found my grandfather watching a movie, strangely enough, about frogs.  In this case they were killer frogs.  In one scene that I watched, I saw a large group of frogs pick up a man's car and through it into the lake.  Now, you've got to realize that my grandfather was almost deaf.  He couldn't hear very well and misunderstood what the movie was about.  I realized this a few nights later when I heard him telling a neighbor about the killer frogs that he had seen on the NEWS.  He thought this group of frogs had really thrown a man's car into a lake in a nearby town!

I started to break in and explain things, but then I thought NAAAAAAAAAAY!

From that time on, when my grandfather and I would put the frogs out at night, he eyed them with just a little more caution!

Like I said, I enjoyed spending time with my grandparents, but mainly I just wanted out of there because of the living conditions.  I wanted a place of my own, but I had absolutely no money. IT SEEMED LIKE AN ETERNITY had passed when a friend of mine offered to loan me the money to get my first apartment.  I hated to leave "Hotel Frog" behind, but I did move to another town and started a new life.  (Incidentally, my grandparents soon got a better place as well!  Isn't God good?!)

Again, God was at work in my life teaching me.  I didn't realize it at the time, but God was teaching me that we all need some help sometimes.  When we are down we need someone to help us up.  When we are discouraged we need someone to uplift us.  When we are in the midst of a trial or hardship we need someone to shoulder some of the burden.  As the song goes, "We all need somebody to lean on."

But not only that, God also taught me that we need to help others as well.  We need to be that person who helps up the one who is down.  We need to be the one to uplift and encourage.  We need to shoulder some of the burden.  You see, God has blessed us that we might bless others.  Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ."  Christ's law was to "love one another, as I have loved you." (John 13:34)  And how did Jesus love us?  Sacrificially and unconditionally, always putting our needs ahead of personal comfort.  That's His call to us today.  That's the kind of love He wants us to give.

Look around you today, my brothers and sisters in Christ.  Look around you today and you will see somewhere there is a young man who is living in a house filled with frogs and roaches.  You will find an elderly couple who lives in dark and dirty house.  Look around you today and you will see people with needs...needs that you can help meet.  You will see real people, with real hurts and real pains who just need a touch from Heaven. 

And God will use you to be that touch.

And then, only then, will you hear the King say, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Have a "Wonderful DAY in Christ,"
Jimmy D. Brown
\o/ Praise Jesus!