If it *convicts* your heart.

What do you usually do to hawkers who try to sell you stuff in Singapore? I mean those folks (whether they are young or old, able-bodied or disabled in one way or another) who usually try to sell you packs of tissues, or recently, some hearing-impaired trying to sell some keychains?

I usually turn them away.

On the way out of the new shopping mall, iluma, at Bugis today, a man full of tattoos on his arms were holding on to a bunch of smiley keychains. My usual reaction as usual, was to wave a rejection and walk on.

But somehow or rather, I felt that this was a different "hawker" from the rest. So as I walked on, I asked my friend "What is it about?" He replied "Oh, it's something for the ex-convicts.." And I stopped short. I wouldn't mind encouraging and supporting the ex-convicts. I mean, if a simple act of buying a keychain at $5 apiece could motivate someone to find hope and start anew in life, why not? And my friend continued "Well, you could turn back if you want.." He even paused to wait for my response. I started whining.. I really don't mind.. but I've already walked some 20metres away, isn't it weird to turn back now? "Well, if it convicts your heart to do so.."

If it convicts my heart, what is it to turn back and walk towards someone to encourage and lend him a little support?

If it convicts my heart..

And so after standing still for a while in the middle of the road, I did. I turned back, paused, searched my wallet for $5, even had to wait for the man to finish his "sales talk" to a couple and then muster up that little courage to say "Hi, could I get one of those?"

After I bought the smiley keychain, the friend who was with me shared that he too turned away the first person who tried to sell him the keychain. He felt so bad that the second time he found the opportunity to support, he literally ran after the person to get the keychain.

As we walked away from that place, we realised that there's a pun on the phrase "If it convicts my heart.." It took an ex-convict to place me in a situation which would test my response to something which convicted me.

James 2:8-10 (NIV)

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself,"you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

Thank you Lord for convicting my heart to respond so that I would not have been convicted by the royal law to love another today.