The “safe” Answer

Sorry for the long wait. Things got really busy at the end of May and I have had very little computer access since.

Christ stated that the poor will always be with us. This is true. For the past few monts I have been serving at Shepherd Community Center on the Near East side of Indianapolis teaching students in the inbetween stages of second and third grade reading, writing, math, science, and bible.

One Friday, we took our kids to Survive Alive. A fire safety program designed to teach children about fire safety.

The question that was asked “Who should tell if your clothes catch on fire?” The room went silent until one student raised their hand and in a innocent guess answered “Jesus?”

There was not a leader in the room that could keep a straight face to that answer.

Yet I feel that there are times when we want to give the same answer and in a a way try to brown nose those around us by the answers that we give. Christ asks us to take the narrow  harder to follow path to break form the crowd and follow him. It is the same with the poor and those living in poverty. How can they take the high road when they don’t have the resources to do so. many of these people have never been told that there is a way out of poverty, never had a person come beside them and show them the way out to be the person to show them that they can be successful.

So many of our churches keep sending money to a cause because it is the easy thing to do, long after money is no longer needed. There comes a point where we need to step out of our comfort zones and teach someone how to do a life skill that they can then use to support themselves. The whole “give a fish, feed me for a day, teach me to fish, I eat for life” idea.