I am studying Sociology/Social Work right now and I absolutely love it. I get to study and learn about the things I am most passionate about however my increased awareness about the social problems in our society often lead me to a place of being completely overwhelmed. I was reading chapter 2 in my textbook on the cycle of poverty and I was left convicted and overwhelmed. Convicted because although I think I do some things in terms of "justice" I really have to wonder if it just seems like I am doing more when I compare myself to people around me.
-Some people think poverty is a problem.
-Some people do a yearly "Saturday-Service-Project."
-Some people do not even have the poor on their radar.
None of this is meant to sound as though I am judging others, I just don't think my personal standards of addressing these issues should be done in comparison to those around me. This allows me to get by, by doing the bare minimum, while still feeling like "at least I did more than the average person." Rather, I want to remind myself of how God views the poor and oppressed. The Bible contains more than 300 verses on the poor, social justice, and God's deep concern for both. I want my life to reflect who Jesus spent time with during his earthly ministry and allow that to be the litmus test of how I am spending my life.
So I am reading chapter 2 and I begin to cry. I think about how much stuff I have, how much stuff I still want, and how much kingdom work is left to be done during my short life here on earth. Jamey probes and asks me why I am crying and I tell him how I'm sad and feel like I'm not doing enough, and I could be doing so much more.
I tell him about a few of my friends whom I admire so much who are literally giving their lives away to see the Gospel restore and redeem people that are poor and oppressed. Like Cassie, who spends most of her days hanging out with the homeless of Shreveport and seeing them find hope in Christ. http://www.thehubministry.com/
Or Courtney who lives in East Asia ministering to prostitutes in sex shops around her city...
No one can charge them with not giving their lives away... They literally have given their lives away for the sake of others. They are on a path to become the next "Mother Teresas" while I wait for the next big sale at Urban and go on the occasional mission trip.
But Jamey chimes in as my sounding board of biblical truth, just as he always does and reminds my heart of some important things:
1.) None of the problems of poverty and oppression will truly be solved until Jesus comes back to restore all things as they were intended to be
2.) That spending time with college girls, loving them and helping them understands the needs of the poor is giving my life away in a sense
3.) Raising awareness and living my life as an advocate for the poor is just as honorable as living in Calcutta, India (both are needed)
4.) Being a good steward of my job, my school work, my husband and college ministry is glorifying to God
I needed this truth and encouragement desperately today as I was sinking in a black hole of all the world's problems and all that needed to be done. While simultaneously doing the math of realizing I only have 1 life to live and only 24 hours in each day and feeling like most of that time I am wasting away just like the next guy. However, it does not ever excuse me from just doing the bare minimum. I don't think Jesus would leave me here on earth to do "greater things than he" like buying Hillsong albums and John Piper books. I think he took the whole "love thy neighbor" thing pretty seriously, and so should I.
Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
Verses like this are not hard to understand, they are hard to do.
I tell people all the time I am not "good" at hanging out with refugees or homeless. They are so different than me and we have nothing in common. Sometimes I do it because I don't see it as optional in scripture. Other times I do it, although it is uncomfortable, because I think my awkward interactions with the poor bring glory to God.
I am definitely not perfect and have TONS of sanctification in a million areas of my life, but I'm thankful for the struggle between this world and the next. Hoping when He comes back he finds me as a "purse which does not wear out"
Luke 12:33. "Sell your possessions and give to the poor; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys."
~My present Calcutta...a thanksgiving dinner with international students back in November~