Beautiful article. Makes me realize that caring for the poor may very well be about our own obedience to a compassionate and faithful Lord, and what should drive our efforts is humble submission rather than a sense of success. That the goal is for us to live more like Christ, rather than trying to get the poor to live more like us.
Our great commission is to preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit convicts, the Holy Spirit does the work. We have no control over who is "good soil" or who is not. However, if the soil is good, as Christ followers, we should continue to be involved, mentoring, supporting, and being in loving relationship. How can we talk the talk but not walk the walk? Commitment to Christ requires no less.
My parents were children/teens during the Great Depression and served in the armed forces during WWII. They reminisced about a time when almost everybody seemed to be poor. But there's being broke, and then there's poverty. A middle-class person who's temporarily broke doesn't adopt the pathologies of the poor, and soon gets back on one's feet. Poverty happens when people internalize the chaos and dysfunction all around them. Giving them money is like pouring water into a sieve (not they they don't need it). So poverty (as distinct from being broke) is essentially a spiritual condition, not a material one.
Beautiful article. Makes me realize that caring for the poor may very well be about our own obedience to a compassionate and faithful Lord, and what should drive our efforts is humble submission rather than a sense of success. That the goal is for us to live more like Christ, rather than trying to get the poor to live more like us.
Our great commission is to preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit convicts, the Holy Spirit does the work. We have no control over who is "good soil" or who is not. However, if the soil is good, as Christ followers, we should continue to be involved, mentoring, supporting, and being in loving relationship. How can we talk the talk but not walk the walk? Commitment to Christ requires no less.
Are we not his hands and feet? ❤️
My parents were children/teens during the Great Depression and served in the armed forces during WWII. They reminisced about a time when almost everybody seemed to be poor. But there's being broke, and then there's poverty. A middle-class person who's temporarily broke doesn't adopt the pathologies of the poor, and soon gets back on one's feet. Poverty happens when people internalize the chaos and dysfunction all around them. Giving them money is like pouring water into a sieve (not they they don't need it). So poverty (as distinct from being broke) is essentially a spiritual condition, not a material one.