Helping the Helpless

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people, who claim to be trying to emulate Christ, use His words; ’The poor you shall have with you always.’ as an excuse to do nothing for the poor. I don’t know why they believe that this verse gives them a free ride when it comes to caring for the poor? As we talked about last time, God is disgusted by injustice against defenseless people. Listen to what He had to say in Deuteronomy:

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ ~Deut. 15:7-11

God is directing the children of Israel as to how to act towards the poor. Now I understand that we are not ‘bound’ by the OT directives, but I do think there is a general principle here that we should heed.  It’s interesting to me that God points out here that there will always be poor people, so what should we do? ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ The question is: Are you opening your hand wide?

We should not be satisfied with the status quo in our world today. Our world is a world of great inequity and injustice. I think the problem for many of us is ‘selective perception’. This is damaging on two fronts.

On the one hand, we compare ourselves to those around us, typically, those that live at a slightly higher standard than us. This encourages us to feel like we don’t have much, and to feel like we NEED MORE! I beg you to not get caught up in this foolishness! I am horrified when I see, for example, how many toys the average American child possesses. Now many parents will excuse this by saying something like, ‘Well, everyone gives them to us, what are supposed to do?’ You can do plenty! Ask everyone that wants to give a present to your child, to donate the toys to an orphanage, or donate the money they would have spent to a charity of your choice. Take the extra toys that your child has and give them away to people that you know in need. There are so many things that can be done if we just open up our minds a little!  Give your kid a couple of boxes to play with….believe me, they’ll be satisfied!

How can our children learn the value of caring for others if all we teach them is to get more for themselves? Of course, changing their training would likely mean that I would have to change my behavior as well. YIKES! I don’t imagine that a teenage girl would whine as much about not having the latest fashions if she spent some time around people that have nothing. I don’t think a teenage boy would complain about not getting a new car, if he saw you fixing up old cars to give to people that can’t afford them! And maybe I wouldn’t feel like I need those new golf clubs so much, if I know people that can’t afford to keep their heat on in the winter.

The other way ‘selective perception’ gets us, is that we fail to notice the needy. Many people in First World countries have figured out a way to distance themselves from those who have nothing. How convenient! This means, that it is now inconvenient to help those in need, because now we’ve got to go out and look for them. But isn’t that what Christ calls us to? Aren’t Christians supposed to be people that are looking for opportunities to help others? So what are some other things that we can do?

~ Volunteer your time/skills. Make helping others your new hobby. Work at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Collect and sort donations for the Salvation Army or Red Cross. Find a place where your whole family can volunteer together!  Build homes for Habitat for Humanity.  What a great thing to teach your kids! There are so many groups that are desperate for help.

~ Care for those in your neighborhood. You may not have any poor people in your area, but you very likely have some lonely people near you. Reach out to the elderly and the lonely. Offer them your time and your table. Make them a part of your family!  Turn your neighborhood into a ‘community’.

~ Take a meaningful family vacation! Nowadays there are heaps of opportunities to take a vacation that is more than just sightseeing. Go on a short mission trip to a third world country. Just google ‘volunteer vacation’ and start checking out all the productive ways you and your family could spend your vacation time. Again, I can’t think of a better way to teach your kids some valuable lessons about priorities! Of course, you could always take a short trip to Perth…

~ Write your government officials and let them know what you think about critical issues affecting people that have no voice in government! Congress.org makes it really easy for every American to email their representatives. You may think that no one will notice your emails, but that does not excuse your inactivity. Just like with the gospel, all you can do is put it out there, how others respond is not your problem! Maybe if more people would be willing to try, governments might start listening! I don’t put a great deal of trust in the government for these types of things, but if you have the time, why not give it a shot!?

These are just a few ideas to get your mind going! I’m sure you can think of a lot of other achievable things that can be done to fight for the poor and needy. In fact, let me hear from you! Email or post a comment sharing some of your best ideas for simple things that people can do to fight for the helpless! I’ll be happy to collect these ideas and share them in a future post.

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