Love and Care For the Poor
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the
wicked have no such concern. – Proverbs 29:7
It happened again. She was sneering at someone
struggling financially. Her retort, “She needs to get a job.” Well, yeah. She’s
tried. And she’s still trying.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard her make the ugly
comment about someone. Male or female. Young or old. It doesn’t matter. She
looks down on anyone who is poor. Sadly, though not surprising, she doesn’t have
a job of her own. It’s nice when you go from your Daddy’s house to your husband’s
without ever having to work to support yourself. It gives you plenty of time to
judge others.
I think she’d be shocked by this proverb. She is a
woman of deep faith. Really. She is. But like so many people who loudly proclaim
their conservative agenda, she’s quite choosy about which passages of her Bible
she holds close.
Yes, we are to work. God’s word makes that clear. But
we are also to show kindness and compassion to those who are poor. And we are
not to judge. Honestly, we usually don’t have a clue about what’s going on in
someone else’s life.
The hard truth is that there are people in our country
who work two and three jobs to support themselves and their families. Housing,
food, insurance. That doesn’t even touch on clothing, school supplies, car
maintenance or transportation costs. Throw in an illness or two and you’ve got
a recipe for disaster.
Who takes care of the poor? Who helps get job
training? Who provides the helping hand? Can you hear it? Yes. That’s the chorus
of conservative Christians blasting away at the government handouts. What are
they doing to “fix” the problem? Well, nothing that will actually cause them to
get their hands dirty.
Are there people who take advantage of the system? Of course
there are. But there are many, many good people who are struggling to make it
on their own. They just need help for a time.
In a perfect world, the churches – that means you and
me – would step up and provide that helping hand. But we’re so busy condemning
and judging that we can’t give help.
Well, except for a program in a nearby town. They meet
once a week in a local church. The mentors, men and women of different faiths,
and those they are hoping to guide to a different life. It isn’t about lectures
or classes. It’s about friendship and guidance. They are helping people take a
different path, make better choices, envision a life that once seemed
impossible.
Are they changing the world? No. But they are changing
one person at a time and that ripple goes out farther than any of us could ever
imagine.
It is just so easy to condemn the poor without ever
trying to understand or offer personal help. That goes again everything the
Bible teaches us.
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