Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)
A little while back, we met a lady named Susan. She boldly approached us – who at the time were strangers to her – on our city sidewalk and asked if we could help her and her husband purchase $10 in groceries for that day. She had received no help from the local churches (which I told her was to be expected, as they are organizations, and not as able to help individual people with such needs) and they didn’t know what to do.
Well, it happened on that day that there was actually cash in my wallet. I had gotten some out of the bank for our upcoming trip to Buffalo. We have had problems paying our bills recently, so as the clear thought to give them one of my Twenties resided in the front of my mind, I wrestled vigorously with it. But, in that brief, albeit lively conversation in my head with God, I decided that perhaps he had arranged the timing of this meeting. We never have any cash on us. It’s quite rare. So, we did, and they needed it, so we helped them. We stayed and chatted a bit, and found out a bit about each other, and in the end, they invited us over to share a meal after her husband got paid the following Friday. We accepted, and moved on, pondering the events that it seemed God had just arranged.
Well, Susan and her husband forgot we were coming to dinner, so we ended up just spending a little time hanging out, getting to know each other. It was slightly awkward, but it was alright. They definitely do not have what most would consider a “normal” life. They are both slightly different than the general populous, both in physical and mental capacities. But they are children of our Father, whom he loves. And it was nice to get to know them a bit.
A week or so later, I came across Susan again, on a walk to the post office. This time, she asked if I could give her a ride into Rochester to hook up with some friends. She said she and her husband were having a hard time, and she needed to get away for a while. I was in admittedly in a hurry, but did not just want to brush her off, so we chatted for a few minutes, and we both came to the conclusion that she just needed to talk with her husband about what was bothering her. So, she went home to do that.
That’s the last I have seen of Susan. But recently she came to mind again. And my first impulse was that we should go over and check on them. Make sure they are OK.
And then I thought that oh-so-familiar, free enterprise marketing genius phrase… WWJD?
🙂
I wondered, did Jesus ever deal with people who need a little extra time or help in life? And immediately, I concluded, “Yeah, he did. A lot! He was always helping people whom society might leave behind.” But, then I had a strange realization. I could not recall any time that Jesus went back to help someone he had once connected with. The only people he regularly spent time with were his disciples, and Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Other than that, we have no record of Jesus keeping tabs on someone, or helping them make the right decisions in life, and “checking up on them”.
And that’s when I realized that perhaps we are not doing WWJD as much as we think. Perhaps we do a disservice to people who we deem as “high maintenance” by continuing to provide “maintenance”? Jesus was great at helping people with their immediate problem, and then allowing them to continue their lives making their own decisions. That is how we have been built. We are equipped to fully choose our own path. Good or bad.
We are not left alone in that. We should encourage and support each other – in good and bad. (Not support people’s bad choices… support people who may have made, or even… are going to make a bad choice.) And Holy Spirit is with us, in us, so that we are not left to journey alone.
But, we are still capable of, and perhaps designed to make our own choices. That’s something I am not sure we as the church have been so good at doing. Even broader than the church, many people feel government organizations should step in and make sure everyone is taken care of, and/or doing things the right way.
Well… I think we might be better off letting people live their lives. Enabling people to choose, good or bad, which way they will go.
It seems like that’s what Jesus did. He didn’t try to conform anyone to his way of thinking. He offered the true kingdom perspective, and he helped people with their immediate needs, but he did not become a care taker for anyone. He allowed people to make their own decisions for their own lives.
I like Jesus. He’s cool.
So, I don’t know if you know a Susan, too… but perhaps we can be more help to each other by treating people as Jesus did. No favorites. No one he stepped in and checked in on regularly. He just loved people, and pointed them in the right direction – toward Father – and allowed them the freedom and the joy of the journey.
I’m still processing all of this, but these are some of the things I learned from our path crossing with Susan.
I have an inkling – Jesus spent a lot of time with the people who he wanted to continue the mission.
The people he didn’t spend a lot of time with (as individuals, anyway) were the people who had other issues that … I dunno, I’m just talking …
Hmm… The best part about his post is that i know Susan (the actual susan) and she is high maintenance. But that’s not my point.
(this is going to be very scatterbrained… sorry)
I’ll agree with your summary points, about how we can serve people into a state of complete laziness and lethargy, and that organizations have a tendency towards the sort of compassion that only bandaids the problem… but i’m struggling with the model drawn from Scripture. You mention that there’s no record of Jesus going back and re-connecting with people he’d already connected with. Thus, maybe we shouldn’t continually be helping those who are always asking for help; those who are ‘High Maintenance’.
There are lots of things that Jesus didn’t do in Scripture. It makes me nervous to base a practice or belief just on what scripture doesn’t say. (but then again it makes me nervous to base a belief or practice just on what scripture says too… the first one makes me more nervous though) We have very little record of what Jesus did, said and practiced; enough to base our faith on, and enough to help us be a blessing to the world around us. And now i’ve completely lost my point… moving on…
I think we’re all high maintenance people, whether we’re reliant on the State, the Church, our families and friends, or our God,… we’re all in need of regular maintenance. I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing, nor do i think that Scripture speaks against it. But, like all things, there’s healthy dependence, and unhealthy dependence. And we’re left to judge for ourselves which is which.
I knew a guy named Thomas. He was a cocaine addict who said he stated using because it made the voices go away. when he found treatment at the mental health clinic i was working at, he was weened of his cocaine addiction and put on anti-psycotics… and now he’s addicted to them because they make the voices go away. Either way, he’s dependent, … just one is ‘good’ and the other is ‘bad’. or maybe they’re both bad and he should visit Ernest Ansley for a healing miracle.
hmm… did that story have a point? i’m like the old cleric dropping random stories and leaving the young lads and ladies to tie them together.
skip this comment and just read chris’ twice. it’s shorter and probably contains more wisdom.
thanks for the compliment Mike – but I have another thought and it’s totally related to yours.
Jesus is God. We can all agree on that, right? Meaning, He also knows everyone already – intimately. We (human beings), however, do not. It takes relationships, which by definition require time, in order to know people. He already knew their needs because He knew them.
But we can’t know a person’s needs – their true needs (aside maybe from dinner money or gas money or grocery money or a burger or whatever) until we have actually gotten to know them, walked in their shoes … just a thought.
I feel this way…
Jesus touched those that came into His way, His life or His walk. He never went looking for the needy. And just because He restored the sight of one blind man, didn’t obligate Him to restore the sight of all who were blind.
I do not believe in setting up soup kitchens under ‘Christian’ leadership. If governments want to head up such a project, go for it, but for Jesus Followers to invest such time and resources and grief (and it is grievous for those with their whole heart in it) I just see it as a losing battle. Besides, Jesus said “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” and Housing the homeless and feeding the poor is neither of those things. And it’s an impossible task right from the get go when Jesus already told us “The poor you will have with you always”. [that sounds pretty definite].
I believe that if someone, such as a Susie, asks us for help, we are obligated to do what we can do for them.
In Matthew 5 Jesus was pretty clear on how to treat a non-believer, or even an enemy. Whatever they ask, give it to them and then some. [How much more so for a fellow follwer?]
Blessings, Alisa
Just thought I’d jump in and add a thought: a wise man in my church once comforted me when I came upon a sudden realization that there is a world of needy, unsaved people out there and only a few people able to help. He said, “Well, it’s like the boy that was walking down a beach covered in starfish washed up in a recent storm. The boy would reach down, pick one up, and toss it back into the ocean in hopes that it would survive…and he continued this behavior for a long time, until finally a man came up to him and said,
‘What’s the use, son? Can’t you see you’ll never make a difference? There’s too many, and you’ll never rescue them all. It’s hopeless.’
But the boy was not detered. Instead he just smiled and said, ‘Maybe. But I made a difference to that one.’
That story has made me realize how worth it is for just one, even ONE to be saved, helped, noticed, or befriended. Hey, Christianity can act like a domino effect…what has been poured into me will one day spill out onto others, and so on, until the Love of Christ has reached all nations, tongues, and tribes.