"Truly I tell you,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me." (Matthew 25:40 NIV)
As we enter this
season of gratitude for the gifts of our Father in heaven, I thought I would
share a story and my interpretation of its message. I recently attended a gathering of Christian
business people, but it could've been any number of Christian gatherings,
because I've seen similar behavior amongst those professing to believe. As most of you know, my job is similar to a
sales position, except that I help create partnerships with business owners to
hire the graduates of our ministry's career development program. The graduates of this program are formerly
incarcerated men and women seeking to reenter society as productive,
tax-paying, citizens again. It is truly
rewarding work that I believe reflects the message above in Matthew 25:40.
One would think
that a gathering of Christian business owners would be the perfect place to
find receptive souls willing to give their struggling brothers a second chance
on life. What I've found is quite the
contrary. Christian business owners seem
to be far less receptive to hiring from our demographic than those who are not
of the faith. I recall a discussion with
a female business owner where I tried to get some time to speak with her about
hiring one of our clients. I asked what
she thought about helping people who want to turn their lives around. As with many of the Christian business
owners, they buy into the idea in a theoretical sense, but they suffer from an
extreme case of NIMBY (Not in my backyard, or business in this case). When the rubber meets the road, most will not
even consider actually hiring ex-offenders, but they will at least politely
hear you out. This woman wouldn't even
do that. She refused to even meet with
me, so that I could explain how we mitigate risk to business owners. She couldn't even just fall back on the
excuse that "it's a policy", because she is the creator of policies
in her own company. I left both discouraged
and confused. Why are people who profess
to believe in Christ and His messages so reluctant to act on His commands? It
really struck me in church today, when we talked about gratitude and
service. I wonder how many people
realize that as a nation we have about five percent of the world's population,
but we also have about twenty five percent of the world's prisoners? I also wonder if most Christians realize that
almost all of these folks will get out at some point and need assistance to
accomplish the task that is the supposed goal of our justice system, to learn
from their punishment and become productive citizens again? I wonder if they realize the severe obstacles
these people face in trying to accomplish that goal, called collateral
sanctions? It also got me to thinking
about whether most Christians realize that they are only one poor decision away
from being in the same position or one paycheck away from homelessness? It dawned on me that this is the reason that so
many people are turned off from our religion.
They see many Christians as "holier than thou"
hypocrites. Belief in our faith is one
thing, but "faith without works is dead", as they say. Yes, it's true
that we do not achieve salvation through great works, but only through Christ's
sacrifice. However, it is also true that
if we are truly touched by the Holy Spirit in our conversion, we should be
inspired to live out the commands of Jesus.
Jesus clearly commands us to help the less fortunate, and we should
actually want to do so in acts of servitude.
In other words,
we can sit in our ivory towers, middle class suburbs, and lily white churches,
but if we do not venture out to serve the needy, we are not obeying what Christ
has asked us to do. Church is important for
"iron sharpening iron” purposes and to praise the Lord, but it is only
part of the equation. We must get out of
our comfort zone to help others. We must
sacrifice. It's not furthering God's
purposes to preach to the choir, so to speak, since they are already
believers. We must go out among the people
in acts of servitude, in order to find those who are really in need of hearing
His message. There is no better way to
show God's grace than to extend it through service or opportunity. While none of us is perfect, and that's
something the un-churched don't seem to properly understand either, we need to
pray and reflect on what He is telling us to do. We are prone to human sins such as pride,
fear, arrogance, and lack of faith, but we should try to correct this in our
walk. That's what differentiates Christians
from the rest of society. We make
mistakes, but we ask for forgiveness, pray for direction, and try to correct
our shortcomings. If we don't, we should
really question whether we've actually experienced a spiritual re-birth or not.
This Thanksgiving
season, I'd like to call on the Christian community to be grateful for the
blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us, but I'd also like to ask that we be a
blessing to someone less fortunate than us.
I would like to ask that Christian business owners really look into
their souls and ask themselves if they are practicing their faith in their
business life too. As my pastor said in
church last Sunday, if we operate in a spirit of true gratitude, realizing that
we are completely unworthy of the gift given to us by Jesus, we can’t help but
want to give of ourselves to others.
However, if we operate from the paradigm of being deserving of Christ’s
love, we are not filled with a spirit of true gratitude, but really a spirit of
arrogance. We feel as though we are owed
something or are superior to others because of our beliefs. Which spirit will you have this holiday
season?
Have a great
Thanksgiving and thank you for reading!
-Rich
