When Helping Hurts

I love books that blow my mind in the first chapter.

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself did just that.

I bought this book because we're moving to Haiti. We want to learn how to live out the commands of Christ to love the poor and to care for them. We will be the first to admit that we have absolutely no idea how to do that. So obviously this is a book delberts like us should read, right?

I was reminded in the first few pages of this book why these are things every believer needs to be thinking about. It's something I always should have cared about. It's a book I should have picked up and read when a move to Haiti was not on the horizon. It's what the church should be talking about. Every morning we should wake up aware of the fact that no matter how right things may feel here, things are not right in most of the world. As people who love Jesus and follow Him, the cry of the poor is something we should hear every day. We should feel the weight of it, and our lives should be lived differently because of what we know and because of what Jesus says.

Can I share some of the things from this book with you?

Listen to what God says to Israel (His chosen people) as He was indicting them for their sins and promising to send them into exile. Notice what has really irked the Lord:

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?” says the Lord? “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and the lambs of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies...Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:10-13, 16b-17)

Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. “Why have we fasted, “ they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?”

...Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. (Isaiah 58:1-3, 5-10)

Why was Israel sent into captivity? Many of us have a picture in our minds of the Israelites getting out of bed every morning and running off to the nearest shrine to worship idols. Indeed, numerous passages in the Old Testament indicate that idolatry was a problem in Israel. But these passages give a broader picture. Here Israel appears to be characterized by personal piety and the outward expressions of formal religion: worshiping, offering sacrifices, celebrating religious holidays, fasting and praying. Translate this into the modern era, and we might say these folks were faithfully going to church each Sunday, attending midweek prayer meeting, going on the annual church retreat, and singing contemporary praise music. But God was disgusted with them, going so far as to call them “Sodom and Gomorrah!”

Why was God so displeased? Both passages emphasize that God is furious over Israel's failure to care for the poor and the oppressed. He wanted His people to “loose the chains of injustice,” and not just go to church on Sunday. He wanted His people to “clothe the naked,” and not just attend midweek prayer meeting. He wanted His people to “spend themselves on behalf of the hungry,” and not just sing praise music (When Helping Hurts, pages 39-40).

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The gospel...what my life is supposed to be all about. And yet I've had to confess to the Lord that I have been very self-centered and shallow when it comes to the gospel. I haven't lived in the gospel and wallowed in the richness of it.  Oh I love thinking about how the gospel has affected me.  Don't even get me started about the gospel and who I am because of what Jesus did.  But am I living out the gospel towards others?  Am I imitating Christ?  Jesus came to set the prisoner free. He went to broken places to touch broken people.  He came to declare freedom to the oppressed.  He shared the good news in word and in deed.

It wasn't something he did every once in awhile. It was who He was.  It's who He is.

Because of the words Jesus left us and the example He set, I pray we all become people who are known for the ways we fight for justice. I pray we are known for being people who love the poor, clothe them and care for them. May we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly as we share the good news. That's the gospel...in word and in deed.

Obviously our deeds will not save us.  Only by God's grace do we belong to Him.  Caring for the poor will never earn me favor in front of God.  I could spend my whole life caring for the poor and my works would never be enough to pay for my sin.  I'd still come up short.

Learning to "do what is right" like God commanded the Israelites is not about earning salvation.  It's about imitating Christ.  It's about obedience.  It takes faith to spend our lives on a kingdom we can't see in the here and now.  And yet God is calling us to live for that kingdom...to live like citizens of heaven, people who fight for freedom, care for the poor, feed the hungry and clothe the naked because our King is about those very things.

This book has caused me to ask some hard questions:

When people think of us, do they associate us, our churches, or our families with people who are seeking justice, encouraging the oppressed, defending the fatherless and the widow, loosening the chains of injustice, setting the oppressed free, sharing our food with the hungry, providing the poor with shelter, clothing the naked, and satisfying the needs of the oppressed?

What does it look like to spend our lives for the hungry? (Is. 58:10)

Why does God use the word, "fasting" to describe caring for the poor, the oppressed, the fatherless, the hungry and the naked?