This is a great video interview between Bono and Bill Hybels (admittedly I'd never heard of this guy before, but apparently he's a pretty big deal). Bono talks about the Church and its response to the poor and suffering. He specifically addresses AIDS.
Lately I've been trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing in this world (okay, aren't we all?) But I've just got this itch that I need to be living differently. And I know in my head that as a member of the body of Christ, I am supposed to care for the poor. I want to care for the poor. But I often don't know how or to what extent. It seems like helping the poor is a lifestyle, not something you just do for a couple hours a week. How can I balance my commitments in life (wife and mother being the big ones) with helping the poor? How much is "enough"? Like, on one hand we could pack up the family and move to Mexico to live among the poor. On the other hand, I can donate money to sponsor kids in poverty and give my tithe to my church who helps the poor. It doesn't feel like that involves enough commitment or sacrifice though. But moving to Mexico (or wherever) seems like "too" much of a sacrifice (if is there such a thing?). I find a lot of fulfillment in serving the people I know where I am right now. So leaving it all behind to become some kind of missionary seems crazy to me. But if its the story that God has called all Christians to live, then what am I thinking passing up the opportunity to live the most fulfilling life possible?
I'm sure there's middle ground here. But it almost seems like the middle ground is the hardest one to choose because you have to balance everything--living in America with all the pressures to succeed, have money, and be pretty, but simultaneously serving the poor and living differently than most people. Those pressures wouldn't be so high if we lived among the poor. But living among the poor involves all sorts of sacrifices I couldn't even list here.
I wish there was some way to gracefully close this post. But there's no resolution, at least on my end. For now.
Monday, May 17, 2010
“Insurance” is undermining the Church.
I try not to think of it. But so much of our family’s income goes towards “insurance”. Health. Car. Homeowners. Life. Disability. I have avoided actually calculating exactly what percentage of our money goes to this sort of thing…because the results would probably make me cry.
It’s just another way our society tries to make life “safe”. We have become so risk-averse. (I say “become” not because I have actually seen this trend—America has always been pretty risk-averse in my life time…but I know things weren’t this way for my grandparents or their parents.)
One of my favorite books is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. He discusses this idea in his book, and also in this video:
We like to try to live as if God isn’t good. As if he’s not going to pull through for us when times get rough. So we count on things like insurance to cover some of the more difficult things that might befall us, when instead, maybe we could rely on each other (and God).
I don’t remember what community does this (Amish, maybe?), but they build each other’s houses. So if a fire destroyed your neighbor’s house, you would stop what you were doing and devote your time and resources to building your neighbor a new home. Everyone in the community pulls together. Everyone is mutually obligated to help bring this family out of the tragedy.
Why don’t we do this in our churches? I think part of the answer is insurance. If a person we know has a car wreck, we don’t usually feel obligated to give them money for it. We assume they have insurance to cover it. If they don’t, we may help them out, but we will probably still judge them as irresponsible for not having this safety net. Why do we do it this way?
Recently I was able to witness the generosity of my church. Some friends of mine were struggling financially. Anonymous people in the church delivered money to their doorstep to cover a large portion of the family’s expenses. It was a beautiful thing to behold. I can’t think of anything more community-building (and God-glorifying) than to watch people take care of one another.
But insurance undermines these things. If my friends had some sort of insurance that covered their problem (economic recession insurance, anyone?) they wouldn’t have needed this help. And they would have been robbed of the opportunity to see God take care of them through the generosity of their church family. And the generous people in the church would have been robbed of the opportunity to truly make a difference in my friend’s lives (and see God’s goodness themselves).
See what I’m getting at?
I’m not saying we all need to dump our insurance policies and go to a total dependence on our neighbors, friends, and church family (aka the mercy of God). Okay, well, maybe that is what I’m saying. But I know that’s probably asking too much. Couldn’t we move in this direction though? Instead, I see society (and the church) moving more and more towards fear and independence.
I think if I stopped forking over what seems like half my income for “insurance” I would have plenty of money to help cover any tragedy that befalls a family in my church. Something to think about at least.
It’s just another way our society tries to make life “safe”. We have become so risk-averse. (I say “become” not because I have actually seen this trend—America has always been pretty risk-averse in my life time…but I know things weren’t this way for my grandparents or their parents.)
One of my favorite books is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. He discusses this idea in his book, and also in this video:
We like to try to live as if God isn’t good. As if he’s not going to pull through for us when times get rough. So we count on things like insurance to cover some of the more difficult things that might befall us, when instead, maybe we could rely on each other (and God).
I don’t remember what community does this (Amish, maybe?), but they build each other’s houses. So if a fire destroyed your neighbor’s house, you would stop what you were doing and devote your time and resources to building your neighbor a new home. Everyone in the community pulls together. Everyone is mutually obligated to help bring this family out of the tragedy.
Why don’t we do this in our churches? I think part of the answer is insurance. If a person we know has a car wreck, we don’t usually feel obligated to give them money for it. We assume they have insurance to cover it. If they don’t, we may help them out, but we will probably still judge them as irresponsible for not having this safety net. Why do we do it this way?
Recently I was able to witness the generosity of my church. Some friends of mine were struggling financially. Anonymous people in the church delivered money to their doorstep to cover a large portion of the family’s expenses. It was a beautiful thing to behold. I can’t think of anything more community-building (and God-glorifying) than to watch people take care of one another.
But insurance undermines these things. If my friends had some sort of insurance that covered their problem (economic recession insurance, anyone?) they wouldn’t have needed this help. And they would have been robbed of the opportunity to see God take care of them through the generosity of their church family. And the generous people in the church would have been robbed of the opportunity to truly make a difference in my friend’s lives (and see God’s goodness themselves).
See what I’m getting at?
I’m not saying we all need to dump our insurance policies and go to a total dependence on our neighbors, friends, and church family (aka the mercy of God). Okay, well, maybe that is what I’m saying. But I know that’s probably asking too much. Couldn’t we move in this direction though? Instead, I see society (and the church) moving more and more towards fear and independence.
I think if I stopped forking over what seems like half my income for “insurance” I would have plenty of money to help cover any tragedy that befalls a family in my church. Something to think about at least.
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