I saw a mom's shoulders slump today. It was over the disconnection notice that was crumpled in-between the doors at her house. Her husband has left her with all the kids and she only has a part time job. I sat in my van for sometime and watched her read the paper and the tears welled up in my eyes. What can I do? On my own what can our family do? With all my might I wish I could have backed out of her driveway and driven down to the utilities office and paid that bill for her right away. But sadly we don't have the ability to do that. I have the $5 bill that she once gave me sitting in my pocket. She was kind enough to give it to me for gas money and now I can give it back to her. We could give her a 20, but that won't keep the city from turning off her lights. So it brings me to this thought...How are we being the Church that God commanded us to be?
So as I think of this mother. She is criticized for digging into the government's pockets. But can we blame her? Can we blame anyone? Most people in the church hide in shame the fact that they are on government assistance. Sometimes I blame the prosperity gospel for this. But I most blame the fact that we no longer live like the church lived and should live. They lived as one. All they had belong to all of them. If someone was in need there was no questions asked...what they needed was given to them.
So how are we working as a church? I wish I felt more confident in the American church to stand up against the regular flow of the Western church. Why can't people send back their food stamp cards and say "No thank you...the church has already done this for us!"? It's because we haven't taken action. We aren't willing to do the work. We are willing to say "NO! This isn't right!".
I remember having a conversation once about saving. Is saving a Biblical thing to do? I remember seeing a video on why someone didn't save for retirement or for "OH NO!" situations. It was because there are people in need. It seemed like most people in the conversation were not certain if others would come to help them if they were in need. I remember when our van broke down it felt as if we were all on our own...Until someone reached out their hand and offered to help us. I wish we could have more confidence in the church. Have more confidence that we would come right along side each other at any moment in life and say "We are here!"
I like this.
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