two weeks ago we had adam, who is an understudy to our senior pastor, come and share with our youth his experience as a us-2 missionary and his passion for social justice issues.
one thing that adam said to the kids, that convicted my soul was how he saw charity vs justice. charity as he saw it was alleviating the short term problem or taking care of an immediate need, justice was finding out the reason for the problem and doing something to prevent it. i am a good person, with a load of compassion (that might get me in trouble sometimes). my heart breaks, for people in need, but asking myself what i have done for helping alleviate the problems or system that makes that need ever present i have to say i'm a failure. now, adam did go on to say acts of charity are good and do help, but for me i don't want to ignore a problem..
so i then drove down to nashville to meet up with folks from the national youth workers convention for a twitter meet up. as i parked in my special locals parking (my secret) i walked out of a garage and saw her… i didn't know her name, i just knew one thing about her, she was/is homeless… she was asking someone for money and i thought 'what to do here'.. i was going to have to walk past her. i could do some of the rhetoric i've gone through in the past asking questions to make sure they know where help is (the rescue mission, room in the inn, the soup kitchens in the neighborhood).. i could say i don't have anything, when i know, i have plenty.
i walked up to her, i looked at her, she started her story. "hi there sir…" and on she went. i looked at her, asked "what is your name?" "heather" she said. "what can i help with?" she just asked for food. so i asked her to walk with me. she waited outside the convention center (her insistence) and i bought some food for her for that moment and something she could hold onto for later. i brought it out to her, she thanked me, i just said you are welcome and said something like 'bless you & hope this helps.'
i walked from that park bench to the old spaghetti factory some three blocks away pondering what i had just done. was i dupped? maybe.. was it the right thing to do? maybe.. was it charity? surely.. was it justice? i cannot say that it was.
ariah posted this video and it had me thinking again of this moment.. justice is so involved. do i have the place in my life that i can truly participate in, develop, or find a home in social justice to ignite a passion? its funny being in ministry it sometimes seems counter intuitive to actually be in ministry. this video though gave me much to think about. brought to us from effective stewardship
i was encouraged to see others of my youth ministry colleagues taking care of heather and others of our nashville homeless population.
what is your charity? and what is the justice you seek out?
I dwell in this question frequently. I wonder how to change the social structures so that people do not become homeless to begin with — so that all kids go to school with a full stomach, ready to learn — so that people who have need of medical care have it.
I would take issue with one perception — a meal handed to a homeless person is never ever in vain. It means that we are one meal closer to a solution; it gives us time to find that solution. We need band-aids as well as a solution to the problem. Both-and.
I find the word solidarity to be the operative one. Not standing over a person giving charity — but standing beside a person holding their hands. It’s all in relationships.
I dwell in this question frequently. I wonder how to change the social structures so that people do not become homeless to begin with — so that all kids go to school with a full stomach, ready to learn — so that people who have need of medical care have it.
I would take issue with one perception — a meal handed to a homeless person is never ever in vain. It means that we are one meal closer to a solution; it gives us time to find that solution. We need band-aids as well as a solution to the problem. Both-and.
I find the word solidarity to be the operative one. Not standing over a person giving charity — but standing beside a person holding their hands. It’s all in relationships.
Read this at Day One today — thought of you:
There is another kind of spirituality, an activist form that engages the world on God’s behalf, pours itself more deeply into the world, challenging its corruptions, speaking out against its complicities with evil, giving of itself and its resources to curb and correct the avarice and greed that lie behind the injustices that surround us. This kind of spirituality believes that Christ has no hands but our hands, no resources but our resources, and that he waits for us to invest ourselves in the pursuit of righteousness before it can come to be. This is decidedly the dominant spirituality of the Reformed tradition. It is clearly the legacy we have inherited at Madison Avenue since our earliest days of the 20th century and our participation in the social gospel movement that has, over the years, been expanded to take seriously the importance of worship, prayer, scripture and sacraments–in short, the importance of praying, “Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.”
Read this at Day One today — thought of you:
There is another kind of spirituality, an activist form that engages the world on God’s behalf, pours itself more deeply into the world, challenging its corruptions, speaking out against its complicities with evil, giving of itself and its resources to curb and correct the avarice and greed that lie behind the injustices that surround us. This kind of spirituality believes that Christ has no hands but our hands, no resources but our resources, and that he waits for us to invest ourselves in the pursuit of righteousness before it can come to be. This is decidedly the dominant spirituality of the Reformed tradition. It is clearly the legacy we have inherited at Madison Avenue since our earliest days of the 20th century and our participation in the social gospel movement that has, over the years, been expanded to take seriously the importance of worship, prayer, scripture and sacraments–in short, the importance of praying, “Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.”
I remember giving money to two guys who appears to be living just above poverty. They were standing in front of a car that they pretended was not running and they needed assistance. While I suspected they were faking it to get money, I still did not begrudge the situation because they needed money, and though they were putting on a show it still was something God would have wanted me to do.
I remember giving money to two guys who appears to be living just above poverty. They were standing in front of a car that they pretended was not running and they needed assistance. While I suspected they were faking it to get money, I still did not begrudge the situation because they needed money, and though they were putting on a show it still was something God would have wanted me to do.