Rags to riches or riches to rags?

Richard Foster made the keen observation that " The modern hero is the poor boy who purposefully becomes rich rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor." Isn't interesting how we try to recuse ourselves from the story of Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler?  It is just story about what that particular man needed to do in order to surrender to Jesus. There have been some who have thought that the story is normative for all of us, this led many to make vows of poverty and head for the desert. A modern hero who voluntarily chose poverty and to work with the poor has just finished fourteen years of work in Cambodia. I met Dave when he was living large, working hard and going for the gold in a major industry. He came to our church and never left, that is until God called him years later to work with the poor. Dave worked with our Junior High Students, he cared deeply about them and it showed. He had a very large group and the parents were just as enthralled as the kids. He and his wife Lisa left us and moved to Santa Ana, California to live among poor Cambodians in order to learn the language and understand the culture. Dave and Lisa will never be forgotten in Cambodia, their ministry was nothing short of spectacular. Dave has a way with people, he took pastors on motorcycles out into the bush in order to plant church and train pastors. His motorcycle skills are legendary, after all he was a motor cross champ in his younger days. He worked in a hospital near his home for AIDS patients. The first year the patients  became christians, the second year they became elders and teachers and the third year they died. Words do fail me in paying tribute to Dave and Lisa and their fourteen years of service. Now they are back home and they are taking two years to seek God and decide what is next. Such people have a greatness about them that is rare and does not require tribute. But my simple words today are, "Well done and good friend, it is a honor to know you."