Into Life's Highways
The last few months have been busy ones for me. I have come face to face with the reality of poverty. An acquaintance faces the physical limitations of old age. She can no longer work. In former times, she had a home, a car, a job, and many of life’s pleasures. Now she has no house, no car, no job and all of her assets are being sold one by one to pay the bills. Soon she will be completely destitute. Her physical health, her possessions have all been used up.
In this condition, I found her struggling to survive. I offered her some financial and emotional support in hopes that she could get back on her feet. She gladly accepted, but without resolving to find lasting solutions, she has remained in her pitiable state for months.
It is a pattern among some who are poor to adopt a victim mentality. They blame all their problems on bad luck, poor health, thieves and politicians. They never take responsibility for their own mismanagement of money, health or social contacts. They ask for and expect someone else to come in and save them from the natural consequences that are falling all around them like a house of cards.
For me to assist this woman, I had to first accept her into my life. I had to believe in her integral worth and goodness, despite her temptations to blame and parasite onto others. I expressed this belief in her worth with a small gift that depicted her as a beautiful woman in field of flowers. Then I sacrificed of my own financial reserves to offer her a loan, conditional upon repayment within 3 months. This type of private loan is considered risky, but I assumed it because she has personal property worth twice the value of the loan that could act as collateral to the loan were she to default. With this private loan, we paid a storage facility and removed her property. We then started the long process of liquidating the assets. We had a garage sale. We listed items on eBay at auction.
In the process of discussing the value of her personal property, it became apparent that these items had a hold on her heart. They had belonged to her mother and grandmother. She was determined to keep the most valuable ones even if it meant that she would be evicted for not paying rent. I patiently allowed her to keep her gold and silver and worked with her to liquidate the smaller items. She expressed gratitude that I would not force her to part with her possessions. I negotiated with buyers to try and come to a fair selling price on items that she was willing to sell and sometimes rejected a buyer’s offer in an effort to protect my friend from harm.
With the interaction between us came her fervent declarations of faith. She believes in God’s grace and hopes that He wills save her from these consequences. I do not doubt that she has been taught of Jesus Christ and believes the message of grace in the Bible. However, I believe that for every poor choice, a negative consequence ensues and for every good choice, a blessing is awarded. Her life does not reflect years of good choices. She has fallen to the temptations of the flesh — satiating her sexual desires, addictions, gambling, and revelry. The blessings of thrift, self-restraint, modesty, and sound judgement are not given by the grace of God but earned little by little.
It appears to me that the concept of using faith to take a step forward into the unknown and to rely on God’s protection is not as well understood by my friend. She assumes that dealing with health concerns is more important than securing housing and that not doing the latter in no way reflects negligence. I am not saying that health is not a primary need but in her situation, the crisis is past and recovery is slow but progressing. It takes faith to find a solution to the lack of housing. It takes faith to apply for a job. It takes faith to restrain one’s natural inclinations (addictions) to immediate cortisol relief in favor of long term security.
In this video, Jesus Christ talks of the natural inclinations as “flesh” and the spiritual inclinations as “spirit.” I believe that there is a spiritual awareness that can be developed by listening to intuition, following divine principles as listed in the Bible, and receiving small blessings for good choices. The message of the gospel is that true happiness is found in this way. Those who have found the light can, if they choose, go out like the “servants [who] went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.” (Matt 22:10)
Reaching out to those in the highways of life is not convenient. It is a sacrifice to share the truth of Jesus’ teachings with others in a way that does not condemn while still anticipating a higher reality. I believe that Jesus reached out to those who were open to his message and shared the truth of a higher reality. I believe in living a higher reality and also in reaching down to lift others up by teaching the truth. I believe that helping them to make better choices is not the same as offering grace (a rescue) but more like modeling faith (a path that requires exerting effort). God requires our best efforts (faith) and a pure heart (intention) and with that he can offer grace to rescue us where we fall short.