Monday, 26 October 2009 18:44
The Forgotten
How seemingly benevolent and yet so blind
We see but we don't see. We hear but we don't hear. We recognize but refuse to do the same. We feign compassion, and yet do
not care. We help because it makes us feel better, and involve ourselves only for what we get out of it. How benevolent of us to stoop down to touch those that haven't risen as high as we have.
We join organizations, we stand on our soap boxes, we spout our determinations, and yet do very little that would have lasting result. We walk by them every day, or see them on the street corners, feeling more than a little irritated because we just know what's coming. They're going to ask us for money or demand something of us we are unwilling to give. How sad and cold and distant and cutoff we have become. This is indicative of the society that we live in.
The images are real
Have you ever suddenly become so acutely aware of a whole segment of society that you had before resisted to believe actually existed? The images that we see on our television screens of the children with distended stomachs and sunken cheeks, flies hovering about, are unreal to those that live in affluent societies. Yet they are an everyday reality to the poverty stricken nations of the earth. What about the thousands that languish in hopelessness on the streets of the cities of America simply desiring to find room in the shelter for the evening. Or those in the rural areas where poverty has taken a deeper root than the crops that they struggle to raise? We don't like those images yet we are unable to escape them or our responsibility to what we see.
We must put a face on the faceless - We must learn their story
So many of us see those in the shelters and the programs as people that have made wrong choices, and done such evil that they deserve what they get. "Why don't they just get a job?" we say, making simplistic suggestions to resolve complex problems. Yet do we really care. Have we ever taken the time to get to know someone who struggles in poverty, or claws at the wall from the bottom of a pit of drug addition hoping to find a firm foot hold or a hand grasp that would draw them out of the trench that they have found themselves in.
We must never assume
For some time I worked in a transitional housing ministry. One of the most important lesson I learned while working there was to never assume. I had to train myself to never think I already knew the story before actually hearing it. I remember once while teaching one of the self-sufficiency classes we were in a portion of the lesson on how the Lord works with us to repair and adjust those things in our lives that need changed so that we might take our place in the body of Christ for His purpose and glory. On the occasion I asked the question to those in attendance, "how many of you suffered abuse or harm from those that were supposed to love and protect you while you were children?". The majority of those in the class raised their hands.
What is truly cruel
Now please understand me I am not saying that I hold to a stance of non-responsibility, where someone can simply cast blame on someone else to alleviate their own guilt, but the fact remains we live in an increasingly broken world where it seems that cruelty reigns. Yet we sometimes ignore the truth that the greatest of all cruelties is our choice to forget those that suffer.
We forget the ones that suffer from abuse, or violence, or poverty, or neglect. From the widow to the shut-in, from the one living in the box, to the child locked in the closet because they wouldn't clean their plate, or possibly have spilled their milk. We have a responsibility to such as these and we are called to be the hands and heart of Christ to them. This means we are to touch them on His behalf that they might know Him. Moreover, we are to do it for the right reasons and not with pharisaical hearts.
Mt 6:2-4
2 When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. 3 But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 4 Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
NLV
What is the heart of the Gospel?
Jesus here, calls attention to the truth that our giving is to be a "given". In other words, there is a correct assumption here that we are to give. Yet that giving is not to be for our benefit, but for the benefit of those we give to, without regard for ourselves. This is the heart of the Gospel, this is the heart of Christ, for He gave, laying down His own will that we might find life. How much more then, are we to give of ourselves, exhibiting the nature of the one that indwells us? How can we dare to forget when He did not forget us? How can we dare to refuse to reach out to those that are made in the image of God, denying the Master who laid down His life for us? There is not one particular society that has the corner on cold-heartedness, we are born into that state, and it is refined with age like a fine wine through the things we experience.
Listen to James, the half-brother of Jesus after the flesh.
Jas 2:15-16
5 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"—but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
NLT
If we are to claim the name of Christ it is imperative that we respond to the needs of others, the invisible, the destitute, the broken, the forgotten. We must ask the Lord to open our eyes to see those that we refuse to see, although in the seeing we become overwhelmed with the enormity of the need.
To touch one life is to touch many, and to touch many is to touch the heart of the Father God, the one with whom we give an account for the things done while in our mortal bodies.