Indeed. What's the point in helping the poor? If you feed them today, they will be hungry tomorrow. If you help them with gasoline, their car will run out soon. If you give them a car, they probably won't be able to sustain the licensing and tag fees, let alone the cost of insurance required for getting a tag. What about the high cost of utilities?
Oh, giving furniture and household items seems more long lasting. After all, who goes through couches and tables quickly, but donated children's clothing is soon grown out of; although not as fast as food is eaten. It gets discouraging.
If you really want to impact a struggling family or single mom, try helping them plan their budget wisely. It doesn't cover fundamentals, so how can you be more wise in spending? I know, they should get rid of TV and never buy cigarettes and soda, but you try that yourself. It is not a long-lasting solution. And even though the kids get free breakfast or lunch at school, what about sports participation fees or class pictures; field trips, or just plain having a dollar in your pocket if you are in high school?
Should we consider pet food? It is hard to go visiting and delivering food and see a hungry dog or cat in the yard.
So, what good does it really do to help? If it is just a stopgap show of Christian kindness, what have we accomplished? Sure, they eat that day. The Christian giver feels really good about helping. God smiles on our activity. We are Christ-like in that moment. That's all OK.
What if we help them get a job? If there is a job available for which they have the skills, do they have clothes or a way to wash them regularly? How is their language and vocabulary going to fit in at this place of employment? How will they get there? What does gasoline cost? How do they live until the end of the first pay period and that first check comes? Do they use that check for electricity or food?
"The poor we will always have with us", but how do we help? The truth of the Gospel is the best gift, but how do we become agents for the next generation of those we help--the kids--to grow up differently and with a chance at life? If we share the Gospel and they become saved, are we done? Does God then magically fix all the sociological and economic problems of His children? Look at Haiti--go on a mission trip and see those who have nothing literally but dirt and they are praising God! Makes you think about your own worship!
So, we serve by caring for the poor, and reaching out to meet physical needs, and loving, and praying, and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. We serve because we are obedient children of a loving Father and saved children from our brother Jesus Christ. We love, because He loved. Our hearts soften and our appreciation of our own comfortable lives increases as we see the least, the last, the lost. We serve periodically when it occurs to us or a holiday approaches. We go home feeling better. Proud of ourselves and yet humbled.
The point is that we do serve, I guess. But still it lingers in my mind, how do we effect any change for the next generation? How do we teach self sufficiency and yet the need to yield to Christ? They seem to be conflicting lessons. To those used to living through government checks and programs or philanthropic donations, being self sufficient is a totally new concept. Yielding to Christ would seem to reinforce then that accepting Jesus would equal regular provision.
As Christians and citizens of the USA we are sure of and yet resentful of the government programs that supposedly sustain our underclasses. The current budget crisis in not only the USA, but most states causes us to consider cutting programs that have become just what they are called- "entitlements" for so many generations of the poor. We feel sorry for, and yet resent, and yet wish they would do better for themselves.
We as a nation have tried education, and community action, federal and state funding of programs from food stamps to parenting education and jobs training. Yet the underclass remains and grows and holds onto the same habits that made their ancestors underclass and poor years ago. Just as eye color is inherited, so is position in life for so many Americans. After generations of "a hand up" and special provisions to go to college and better themselves, few do. You hear of the exceptions, but visit the neighborhoods and watch the cycle repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat.......Well, you get the idea.
Watching the children is the hardest on our sympathy nerve, but as they approach teen age years, we become afraid. Justifiably so in some cases. These youths have learned how to live in their world. The suddenly they are the parents and the cycle continues.............
"So do not get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessings at the appropriate time." Galatians 6:9 promises the giver blessings. So we give, and we really care. We are not callous to this underclass. We go to churches that reach out into the community all the time. Really. But the hungry are still hungry, and the poor are still poor, and the life styles of those we reach out to are rarely changed.
Much of our Christian walk is like that. We serve, we give, we visit the imprisoned, and we pray. We love. We reach out and welcome. We give the gospel. That's who we are in Christ. But once in awhile, please pray that the lives would be changed.....that we might make some significant impact on the life styles and futures of those we help. Neither the church nor the government seem to have perfected that kind of help.
