How do you feel about helping hungry people in America? Should the richest nation in the world feed them? Should we help them better themselves? Do you feel the shutdown may motivate “those people” to act different?
My Jesus told me to feed, cloth and help the poor and needy. I will point out the culture of that time had some stipulations on who was helped, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
So should our government be feeding, housing and handing out cash to people?
Help
I do believe in helping people when they’ve taken a bad lick.
The pastor’s wife, Ollie Mae Tillman and Mrs. Stafford brought the Ingrams boxes of food and a check from our church one afternoon when I was almost a teenager.
My daddy, my brothers and I had come down with the mumps a few weeks earlier. The washing machine quit and life had gotten hard on Momma.
I remember her sitting in a chair and crying as those gracious women brought in the groceries. As you can see I have never forgotten that act of kindness.
Hurt
How many of you like paying taxes?
I do like good roads, professional law enforcement, fire protection, good schools and somebody who will make this world a more hygienic and beautiful place to live.
But should people count on the U.S. Government for all their needs? That sounds like socialism to me. And socialism never works.
I also want people who count on the government for their livelihood to realize they are currently being played by both sides in the government shutdown.
The people who feed you and the people who give you a paycheck control a certain amount of your life. That is not one of founding concepts of the Land of Free.
Hands
A man is made to work.
Men have broad shoulders, strong arms and hands, coupled with a genetic disposition to hunt wisely and bring home the bacon.
My father was in the Air Force and I never saw him unemployed a day in his life. He loved his work but he was careful to explain to us boys: “They call it work. If it was fun all the time, they would call it play.”
It’s a work ethic I have passed down to my four boys. They understand their role in life.
Let me be frank. I have a son who lives in Virginia and works for USDA. He has been caught up in the shutdown and is not working.
He is fortunate to have money saved up and a couple of friends who have given him odd jobs to help with cash flow. He is also fortunate to only have rent, a car note, regular bills and one mouth to feed - his own. He’ll be just fine.
Hope
I hope our local churches will take this opportunity to minister to people in need during the shutdown.
It looks like the shutdown will probably last longer than any of us want.
But our churches need to follow the examples of scripture in providing that social, spiritual and sympathetic help.
The Bible talks repeatedly about taking care of widows and orphans. The New Testament tells Christians to offer help to those righteous women of the church. It is also modeled in stories where family takes care of family when life gets hard. I also see where the church helped those who were faithful church members first.
Jesus himself fed people on two occasions. The second time they wanted the “manna from heaven” to keep on coming. Please look it up and read what He said.
But I don’t read anywhere that it says we are to support healthy men. I am still searching for the verse where we are supposed to pay the mom of multiple kids to sit home and watch daytime TV.
Our society has broken so many of our millennial-old institutions. Government has pushed The Church out of a job that it once did so well. Government has also shaped and redefined what The Family looks like.
Holidays
Now listen closely.
In this season of Thanksgiving, I hope you will look around and find some way to help someone in need.
Maybe you need to volunteer at a local charity. Maybe you need to humbly get back in church and learn what charity really means. Maybe you just need to look around for someone close to you who needs a hand-up.
Step up and give what you can to your friends, family and community. It makes your world and this world a better place when you do.
-- Floyd Ingram is the Editor and Publisher of your Tate Record. He has good days and bad days. Call him at 662-562-4414 if you need help or want to help others.
