Today’s Scripture Reading (April 3, 2016): Psalm 9 & 10
Money guru Dave Ramsey insists that poor people do poor things. While it might be a bit of reach, the statement also contains its share of truth. There are some things that only the poor seem to do. The list of poor actions is long, but it includes focusing on the problem instead of the solution, a lack of discipline in money matters, spending money that we don’t actually have, the poor are worried about a work – life balance, they are full of excuses for why we haven’t made it yet and believe that it is the responsibility of others to help us reach our goals, both short term and long term. Ramsey strongly believes that the first thing we need to do is stop doing what poor people do, and start doing what rich people do. Therefore, he believes that, at least in our culture, the solution to poverty actually begins with educating people about the difference between what rich people do and what poor people do.
There is an abrupt change in the tone of the Psalm at this point. No longer does the psalmist (likely David if Psalm 9 and 10 were originally a single Psalm) focus on the wicked; instead he moves to a desperate plea that God would move on behalf of those who are helpless. So it follows that if the church is to be the presence of God in the world, then we will be about the task of lifting up the helpless. But the problem is that lifting up the helpless means something very different depending on who it is that we are trying to help. Our most common reaction is to make a donation, to give a food coupon to the panhandler asking for money; we want to ease our guilty conscience over all of the things that we have that they lack. But it is likely that that action in most cases is the least effective way of lifting up the helpless.
And unfortunately, the solution is rarely static. Within our culture, the task of lifting up the helpless might start with education. We will never get ahead if we don’t know what it is that we are supposed to do. Dave Ramsey is right, some of us are losing simply because we don’t understand the rules. In Africa, it is really less about a hand out than it is about leveling the playing field. To be the hands of God in our world, it seems that we need to also possess the wisdom of God.
So that becomes our prayer. Lord give us the wisdom to give when giving is important, to educate when that is the path that is needed or to forgive debt and level the playing field when that is appropriate. The reality is that we don’t live in a cookie cutter world, and lifting up the helpless will never be accomplished with cookie cutter answers.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 11 & 12
No comments:
Post a Comment