You can always tell it's been a slow news day when all the media outlets are reduced to reporting on the latest thing that's gone viral on the internet! Of course, that's the only reason I heard about the NYC police officer who got his 15 minutes of fame by being "caught" giving a new pair of boots and socks to a barefoot homeless man a couple weeks ago. A photo of the incident went viral, becoming so popular the news media felt compelled to jump into the fray, reporting the "story" and asking people's opinion on what the officer did, how to help the homeless, and so on. Now the man is shoeless again! When people noticed the man some days later, barefoot again, he said he didn't feel safe wearing such expensive boots, and hid them so they wouldn't be stolen. Further investigation revealed that the man was not homeless, and has an apartment paid for by various benefits he receives. He just has a history of refusing help.
Where does this sort of story leave us when we are asked - especially at this time of year - to help the needy? The Pollyanna optimists believe they can give a shoeless man a pair of boots (or put a dollar in the red kettle or give a tot a toy...) and change his life. The Scrooge-like cynics see just another person unwilling to take care of themselves and expecting a handout in the name of Christmas. The story of this shoeless man shows that neither end of this spectrum is true in this case; neither Pollyanna nor Scrooge have got it right.
Where, then, does the middle ground lay? How should we orient our hearts to those in need? Helping others in order to feel good about your own charity will most often lead to disappointment when your gift does not yield the anticipated transformation and/or gratitude from the recipient. Refusing to help others so that they must learn to help themselves will most often lead to being cut off from humanity and with a withered capacity for compassion.
We can't expect to permanently "fix" poverty. Jesus himself states that the poor will always be with us (Matthew 26:11). But neither can we ignore the poor. Jesus expects us to help them (James 1:27).
The solution is to keep our eyes on Jesus when we serve others. Give chiefly because compassion for humanity demands it, and with no expectation of any reward (whether in the form of gratitude from the recipient or the form of satisfaction at doing a good deed). That, after all, is what Jesus would do! God's compassion for Humanity is, after all, the reason for the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment