I’m starting to look at the data and wonder if things are different than I thought. It seems that things aren’t like I always believed, and I have to wonder: is it wrong to help other people?
Raised on Helping
My father was a pastor who focused a lot of sermons on helping others, many of those sermons being saved for a party of one. I grew up learning about sharing, kindness, compassion, and helping others.
But as I look at the way things are going, I have to wonder if he had it wrong. It seems things have changed. What seemed like a given not only isn’t, it never was.
Sorry… sometimes it’s best not to write late at night. It seems like what I thought was true might not only not be true, some might feel it counter productive.
Now I have to ask myself: is it wrong to help other people?
The Data
Here are the things that I see all over the place that contradict what I was taught. I was taught that we should help those in need. I’m not hearing that anymore. I’m now hearing that people in need are bad with money and make bad choices. Helping them would just be rewarding their bad behavior.
I used to hear we should care about people who are down on their luck and out of their homes. I now hear it’s their fault for abusing substances, and cities like LA are banning them.
I used to hear that we should give out of our abundance, but now I’m seeing preachers in 10 million dollar homes, Christian financial counselors in 15 million dollar homes, and pastors sporting private jets.
I was told to love our enemies, now I’m told we shouldn’t even wear a mask to help our friends.
The world it seems has changed. Is it wrong to help other people? The bigger question is, what are we doing to help?
How Are You Helping?
So you feel differently about how to help. That’s fine. The big question is, how are you helping?
If you don’t wear a mask, how are you helping those who are vulnerable? If you live extravagantly while others suffer, what are you doing to help those in need? If you aren’t comfortable feeding the hungry or housing the homeless, what are you doing to change the situations that made them that way to begin with?
Sure it’s easy to find a reason not to help, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. My dog likes what’s easy. When she wants something, she bites. When she wants to make friends, she barks and growls. When she tries to get attention, she sticks her nose up your butt. It may be what she wants to do, but it’s the wrong way to get attention.
What’s easy and what’s right often are far from each other. We need to focus on what’s right, not what’s easy and do what’s right no matter how difficult it is.
Is it wrong to help other people or is it just difficult? What are you doing to make the world you live in better, because if we’re not helping each other, what are we even doing?
