Helping the Needy
Well kids, today I spent a fair amount of time on the phone and email trying to coordinate help for a woman—let’s call her Maria—as she deals with the collapse of her marriage, finances, and security. I spent time away from you to make my calls; I put you in front of the TV so I could write my emails; I left you with your grandmother so I could plan out the details. I want to explain why I made that choice: the choice to dedicate my time to Maria and her kids instead of to my own children.
Before I go on let me just say that our family is blessed to have a steady income, healthy children, and a mommy and daddy with an ongoing love for each other. Maria currently has none of those.
Maria has so many problems that she’s in despair. She and her husband are going through a divorce, her young daughter is suffering potentially life-threatening health problems, and her loss of income due to the divorce and the illness has put her behind on every debt she owes. But Maria’s most imminent problem is personal safety for her family. She has reason to believe that someone has a key to her home and has been getting into her house when she’s not there. Obviously that means that they could get in when she is there too. Only part of Maria’s request today was financial: I need help with this bill before it comes due. The other part of her request was about her family being in danger.
Sometimes, handling requests on the Mercy Committee at church, there is a certain amount of comfort provided by the committee process. All the time, people have sad stories about why they need help and I often end up feeling torn, thinking that maybe I should help them right there, right out of my own pocket, and that if I don’t help then maybe I’m not compassionate. But with a committee process I can take a step back from the immediacy of this other person’s problems.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I’m just figuring out the depth of your needs. Then I’ll present your request to The Committee and The Committee will decide whether to help you or not. I’m on your side, but I’m not the guy with the power. I’ll just wait with you to see if The Committee decides to help.”
But today, with a terrified woman and her children in danger, I couldn’t wait for The Committee. I knew immediately that The Creator had just fingered me as the guy who should be made aware of this terrified woman’s need, and that I was the one to do something about it.
So that’s my answer. I didn’t help Maria today because I’m on The Committee, I helped her because she brought her problem to me, and suddenly I knew that I was on the Jericho road passing a battered stranger in need of help. What do you do?