Do Something or Do Nothing? -Jason

What is a Christian’s response to seeing others in need? As we drive around here in the Dominican, there are plenty of people in need. Little kids out in traffic asking for a handout, people who clean your windshield for a couple of pesos, people who have infected limbs walking/crawling/or dragging themselves around in order to get a donation. What should we do in the face of this?

In your city, when you walk by someone begging who looks like they could use something, do you feel guilty when you walk past them? How about when someone comes to your church and asks for help with the rent or with groceries, what is your church policy? What are Christians supposed to do about all this need?

I am going to take a risk here and expose my thinking on this issue. It may be that you and I disagree. Please do not take this as a personal attack towards anything you have done or have not done out of the kindness of your heart. If I am wrong, I am open to debate where it is reasonable and loving – we can agree to disagree. But you are welcome to challenge my thinking by adding a comment on this blog.

I am thinking that it is better, in general, to do nothing about the needs that are all around us. Here’s why…first, whenever government gives a handout, what does that do for people – does it help them, or does it hurt them? Could it be that in an effort to help we actually prolong the situation – we make it possible for this to be the way that someone makes a living. Second, I am not in a position to know about the person asking me for money – if I knew an organization working with that person, I would trust their judgment, but I have no connection to the person. If I really must give money, it would be better to do it through a person involved in the person’s life. Third, my definition of need is probably warped – it is definitely out of line with the majority of the world. I would say that most of the time (except in cases of genuine emergency) the best thing to do is nothing.

“How can you be so cold?” Let me tell you a story. A little girl down here is always at the same intersection – she can’t be more than four and there are three “lanes” of traffic on both sides of the road. It is very difficult to watch this little girl make an eating gesture and then reach out her hand toward our car window. Yet, we can see her mother just a little ways away waiting for both her children to get the donations. The mother knows how to work the system. Now I look at this little girl and I have to be honest – I want to smack that mother. Here is a little girl who was meant to be in relationship with God, meant to be in relationship with people and meant to take dominion over the earth using her own gifts and abilities given to her by God. Yet, she may or may not be alienated from God (I do not know), she is alienated from people, she is not taking dominion but is rather being trained by her mother to be in subjection to the world around her. What is this little girl’s path? What do I say about that path when I hand her some money? Have I helped this little girl?

“So, what should be done?” If people are to be changed, they will not be changed apart from Life. A person starts with a relationship with God. What we do then happens in the context of relationship and it encourages the other person to become someone who can invest in others using their abilities and talents – this is a changed life. In the example above, a businessman here in the Dominican could find out about this mother and offer her a job which gives her the ability to bring her kids. If she is willing, the table is set for genuine change – you can see how that would be the case. Some are not willing to work; the Bible says something to them for their own good. It has never been good for man to be alone.

In our case, we hope to build relationships with a group of people and live out this process. I do not want to see people live like this little girl. Yet I know that passing out things is not going to solve this girl’s problem, it only encourages it when it is disconnected from relationship. I want people to know Him, to experience meaningful relationships and to live out their God-given design. We trust that the Lord will continue to allow us to have these kinds of opportunities.

The problem is not the response; it is the kind of response. There are enough Christians to make an impact on our world. We will need to invest more time in people though. Who is in your world that could benefit from the Life that you have living in you?