It has been quite some time since the last ‘Leadership Challenge’ but as I sit here in Kathmandu after spending some time contemplating the first few days of my International Emergency Services Deployment I’m reminded of the resilience of people when faced by adversity and what they are prepared to do to help those around them, forgetting at times the risks and just doing what they can to survive and help others to do likewise.
John Ortberg in his book Soul Keeping: Caring for the most important part of you says; “Sin is not just the wrong stuff we do; it’s the good we don’t do. It’s the starving children we don’t want to look at, the volunteering we avoid, the poor we don’t want to serve, and the money we don’t want to give. How can good church folk turn their backs on the people Jesus called ‘the least of these’?”
Hiding behind man made rules and regulations that sometimes prevent us from doing the stuff that we know is right is no excuse either. Just because we might get a bad wrap or even have to work through the risks, doesn’t mean we should attempt to make a difference in the lives of others. Accepting that by doing nothing is safer than doing something and that we don’t have to be held accountable for something that may just be difficult is a far cry from what Christ is going to be holding us accountable for.
The thing is rules and regulations are put in place to protect US, yes in some form they also protect those that we are trying to help but all too often they end up preventing us from doing what we know we should do until we have ticked all the boxes.
We need to do whatever we can whenever we can to provide the kind of love that Jesus expects of us and that may even mean opening up our own houses to those that don’t deserve it. Risks yes, but it may just save a soul. What I have experienced thus far shows that as humans we are very resilient and we will do whatever we can to survive. At times putting ourselves at risk to help others.
Sin is not just the wrong stuff we do; it’s the good we don’t do.
So lets not get bound up by the rules and be afraid of what may happen because we haven’t quite got everything worked out, instead lets look at the lost soul that needs a bed for the night or the hungry blighter that needs some food in their belly and do what we can to lift them in their situation but more importantly in the spirit, sharing with them why it is we do what we do.
But the question for us especially in the western world is how do we overcome the fear of retribution for doing good?
The life and times of Perry... 