two weeks ago we had adam, who is an understudy to our senior pastor, come and share with our youth his experience as a us-2 missionary and his passion for social justice issues.
one thing that adam said to the kids, that convicted my soul was how he saw charity vs justice. charity as he saw it was alleviating the short term problem or taking care of an immediate need, justice was finding out the reason for the problem and doing something to prevent it. i am a good person, with a load of compassion (that might get me in trouble sometimes). my heart breaks, for people in need, but asking myself what i have done for helping alleviate the problems or system that makes that need ever present i have to say i'm a failure. now, adam did go on to say acts of charity are good and do help, but for me i don't want to ignore a problem..
so i then drove down to nashville to meet up with folks from the national youth workers convention for a twitter meet up. as i parked in my special locals parking (my secret) i walked out of a garage and saw her... i didn't know her name, i just knew one thing about her, she was/is homeless... she was asking someone for money and i thought 'what to do here'.. i was going to have to walk past her. i could do some of the rhetoric i've gone through in the past asking questions to make sure they know where help is (the rescue mission, room in the inn, the soup kitchens in the neighborhood).. i could say i don't have anything, when i know, i have plenty.
i walked up to her, i looked at her, she started her story. "hi there sir..." and on she went. i looked at her, asked "what is your name?" "heather" she said. "what can i help with?" she just asked for food. so i asked her to walk with me. she waited outside the convention center (her insistence) and i bought some food for her for that moment and something she could hold onto for later. i brought it out to her, she thanked me, i just said you are welcome and said something like 'bless you & hope this helps.'
i walked from that park bench to the old spaghetti factory some three blocks away pondering what i had just done. was i dupped? maybe.. was it the right thing to do? maybe.. was it charity? surely.. was it justice? i cannot say that it was.
ariah posted this video and it had me thinking again of this moment.. justice is so involved. do i have the place in my life that i can truly participate in, develop, or find a home in social justice to ignite a passion? its funny being in ministry it sometimes seems counter intuitive to actually be in ministry. this video though gave me much to think about. brought to us from effective stewardship
i was encouraged to see others of my youth ministry colleagues taking care of heather and others of our nashville homeless population.
what is your charity? and what is the justice you seek out?
