A Hand Up

I dreamed I was face to face with God, and so I asked God, “There’s so much suffering in the world, so much poverty, so much violence, racism, and sexism. People are treating each other so horribly. God, why don’t you do something about it?” Then God looked at me and said, “That’s interesting. I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

-- Unknown

I have always been a believer in the saying, "God helps those who help themselves."  Will we find this in the Bible?  No, not really.  What the Bible says is in Psalm 94:17-19, "Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.  When I said, 'My foot is slipping,' your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.  When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy."  Basically, God will give you a "hand up" not a handout.  But the roots of this thought might be traced back to an ancient Greek dramatist, Euripides, who wrote a tragedy, in 428 BC, called "Hippolytus": "Try first thyself, and after call in God; For to the worker God himself lends aid."

The impetus for this post was a comment on Facebook.  Of course, I asked if I could reprint the comment on my blog.  Permission was, obviously, granted:

Gotta love when people talk about having faith, but they refuse to use the common sense God gave them. Sorry, but faith alone is not going to take care of all of your ills. God expects us to be responsible with our resources.

I have all the faith in the world that God will provide, but if I go shopping instead of paying my electricity bill, I WILL come home to no lights.

Unless you're an invalid, totally incapable of doing for yourself, I find it hard to have faith that God will simply provide for you because you choose to be a slacker and leach off of society.  This handout isn't for God to provide; this is the business of governmental welfare who take from those who work and give to those who choose not to.

“The matters we or the world might consider trivial, He cares about and wants to remedy. He longs to relieve our worries and has promised to supply our most fundamental needs.”

― Charles R. Swindoll

What God provides to us are our basic needs: Air, food, water, companionship, etc., and it is upon us to breathe, gather food, hump the water up from the creek, woo our life-partner, and so on.  You can't just sit back and say "do for me" unless, as stated before, you've conned your way onto the welfare rolls and, from what I've been told, it isn't that hard to do.

Most of us, however, have a modicum of self-respect which prohibits us from leaching off our fellow man.  Wheelchairs and handicaps are no longer a barrier to meaningful employment, if you want to work, that is.  You must have the desire to become everything you are capable of becoming, and it is this capability to become more which sets us apart in what we do, and in who we are.  Are we to be contributing members of our society, or are we going to leach off of those who are?  It is a choice for each person to be what God instructed of us:

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

-- Genesis 1:27-28 

Nowhere in Genesis does it say "sit on your ass" and take that which you haven't worked for.  Have I missed something?  I don't think so.  Before we were thrown out of Eden, we were to tend the garden.  After we tasted forbidden fruit and were ousted from paradise, we were told to go till the soil and feed ourselves by the sweat of our brow.  

“Abiding does not mean sitting idly by. It means resting in the work, resting in the moment, resting in the truth, resting in the confidence that God is your provision.”

-- Robin Bertram

Again, if you don't want to work, feel free to starve. God will provide to each by the sweat of our individual labor and to those who cannot provide for themselves, the very old, the mentally and physically infirm, and the bedridden.  It is for these "lesser" of us we should have programs. These are the at-risk populations which have no other recourse than charity.

Socialists would say the government should redistribute the wealth of those who have worked hard for what they have. Stealing from others is not a way to light a fire under those who are happy in their lot. If we want to redistribute money, let everyone with a job pay the same taxes across the board. If you make $10 you pay $2, $100 you pay $20, $1000 you pay $200, and so on. 20% across the board and NO exclusions. If the poor get a welfare check, 20% is held back to pay their fair share to others even less fortunate. The League of the Perpetually Offended will lose their little minds, of this I am certain.

“The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another.”

-- Krishnamurti (1895-1986), writer, philosopher

Author Randy Alcorn writes, "Abundance isn't God's provision for me to live in luxury. It's his provision for me to help others live." Abundance is what we work very hard to procure for ourselves, our friends, and family; those who work hard alongside us in life. It is what we use to employ others so they can also work hard and make lives for themselves and, if they work smart enough, they can start their own business and hire others to work hard and get ahead, and so on. This is God's provision for hard working people to help others to move ahead.  

The provision for charity is not forgotten in this, as charity is can be a necessity to prime the engine for success.  As God gives us the strength to become more, so it is our responsibility to give the less fortunate that same strength if this is what they desire.  Charity in its purest form should be reserved for those who cannot rise to the occasion due to serious physical or mental limitations which prohibit them from useful employment. We cannot save the poor from themselves; they must be willing to make some effort or they are doomed to remain where they are.  Charity, for the majority of people, should be more about helping them to rise above their circumstance, to have dignity, not giving them free stuff, or redistributing to them what they didn’t earn.  

Matthew 7:7-8 tells me, you have to find the faith to ask.  You have to seek before you can find.  You have to get off your ass and knock before doors will open for you.  Life is all about you putting in some effort, not leeching off the efforts of others.

“Seeking excellence means choosing to forge your own sword to cut through the limitations of your life...”

-- James A. Murphy, author

Faith isn't about asking God for a handout, it is about asking God for a hand up.  Don't ask God to do for you.  Ask God for the strength to find faith in yourself.  It is through faith in yourself that your dreams come true.  If you can't discover the faith God has in you, how are you ever going to discover the faith you have in any deity?

Having said all of this, moving forward also means moving the world forward with us.  Those of us that have also have a moral responsibility in this forward "movement" to assist others to become more than they are, but it is the responsibility of these others to desire that assistance and not to squander the offer.  We are only as good as the least of us.  It is through the success of these people that we will all be judged.  As God gives us the strength to lift ourselves up, we must also show others how to find that strength. 

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

-- Maimonides (1135-1204), Sephardic Jewish philosopher

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as lead Chaplain and Chaplain Program Liaison, at the regional medical center.