“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their father did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all the people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is the kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
My team and I face problems when it comes to life here is Swaz. For the past few weeks, especially since school started back up, more and more people and our friends have been asking us for things. Things that they need and usually involve a lot of money that comes from our own pocket, not supporters’ money. I wrote a blog before about tough love and that these people need it sometimes, and sometimes that tough love involves not giving to them. We don’t want to fuel the fire of the mindset that Africans depend on the white people to bring them food and you can ask a white person for money and they will give it to you. But we can’t say no, one, because we just can’t and also because this scripture above totally convicts us. We’ve bought multiple school uniforms, we give plenty of food out when there are already feeding programs set up, we buy shoes and clothes, and minutes to cell phones, we lend our clothes when we are asked “will you please borrow for me a sweater?” and we know we won’t get them back and it goes on and on for the most pointless crap like the cell phones minutes…But I’m not complaining about this, I mean give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is Gods, but what I’m saying is that this is a tricky situation. A lot of the time people ask for very stupid trivial things like money for cell phone minutes, but what is tricky is that when a kid is an orphan and lives with his grandmother who has now become too sick to work and already doesn’t even have money, asks you if you can pay for his public transport every week so he can go to school. It’s tricky because, what would he do if I weren’t here? How would he get to school? But I am here and I’m helping him with this. So now he knows that you can ask one of the white people who come by and because they are Christians they have to say yes. I mean if I was his friend I’d be telling him to milk me for all I’m worth, but I came here to help people with spiritual needs and to make disciples and teaching people how to more rely on people with money than on God isn’t the kind of disciple making that was put on my heart. But I can’t say no, and I don’t want to be a rich person Jesus is giving “woes” too ya know? In the scripture it says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied,” well I guess that me giving is God’s way of blessing the poor and them having the kingdom of God, and God’s way of way satisfying the hungry.
C.S. Lewis has a great quote that I’ll paraphrase here: I’d rather stand before the Lord having given when I saw a need than stand before Him convicted that I missed an opportunity. He also says that we shouldn’t feel responsible for how people spend what is given to them – they have to answer to God for that. But it’s a good, God-honoring virtue to be generous right? At the same time, you’re not superman and shouldn’t feel the burden to be so. Live a life like Christ, and rest in the peace that kind of lifestyle brings.