Our Job: Helping People Overcome Obstacles
March 24, 2011
Dear Friends,
People’s lives are messy. Most of us would prefer to avoid most of the mess of other people’s lives. It often times overwhelming simply to deal with the mess in our own lives. For example, did you ever notice that when people’s marriages start falling apart their social invitations diminish? It makes us uncomfortable to be around people whose lives, health, finances, families, sanity and so forth are coming apart at the seams.
In my ecclesia, our elders put these messy issues at the top of our agenda for our meetings. Why? Because it is so distasteful to talk about these things (yet so important), we would otherwise keep putting off talking about them until we would often “run out of time” and have to delay them for the next meeting. It is a lot easier to talk about getting the gutters cleaned than how to help someone whose life is very messy.
The truth is that it is when things get messy that people most need the support of their brethren. It is also in these crisis times when a person reaches a moment of truth – a person’s faith either rises up in victory or is shattered in defeat. People are won or lost for Christ in messy, crazy and uncomfortable times.
One of the reasons we may shy away from offering our help is that we feel so incapable of offering valuable assistance. I have found that this is when our belief in the unerring, inspired word of God is paramount. It seems to me that the Bible contains the answers for all of life’s problems. They may be buried deeply in the text, but the answers are there. So, we may not have the answers to help someone, but God does. We don’t have to rely on our own wisdom, but eternal wisdom from God. We can only be of assistance, however, if we know the word of God from that perspective. We have to know the practical side of the Bible. We have to know how to use the word of God in practical, everyday living. For example, if we can wax eloquent on Ezekiel’s Temple for hours, but are unable to offer a fitting word to someone grieving or addicted or in financial crisis, we aren’t really the man of Proverbs 15:23, “A person finds joy in giving an apt reply-and how good is a timely word!’ (NIV) The priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan were no doubt excellent Bible scholars, but when it came time to use their knowledge in a practical ways for the benefit of the injured man, they passed on by in their useless fashion.
While relying mostly on the Bible, I do read books about many of the issues I will encounter. My bookshelf includes books on alcoholism, child abuse, pornography, mental health and marital problems to name a few. I started reading these books and others like it when a sister came to me for help who had been raped. I rushed out to the library and spent the next few days reading everything I could on the subject. I recall the frustration at not knowing how to help and the feeling of being totally out of my depth. It was then I decided that I owed it to my brethren to be better prepared to help. Not only did I need to know the word of God well enough to pick out appropriate Scriptural passages in the proper context, but I also needed to possess at least a passing understanding of the issues and who among us was better qualified to offer expert help. The result of this realization that we need to be equipped to help was WCF Life Solutions.
It is proper to add that here that there are things that most of us are not equipped to handle. Life-threatening medical and mental health issues are a good example. One of the greatest things you can do for people in these types of situations is to get them to the right place for help and encourage them on that path. We need to be able to know when we are incapable of helping or we may do more harm than good.
One other point I would add is that we can’t own other people’s problems. We can try to give godly advice, love them, provide them with a good example of Christian living and so forth, but at the end of the day people are going to do whatever they are going to do. We do our best to help but we cannot own the result. Also, be careful when helping others not to lose your own salvation in the process. This is Paul’s advice in Galatians when he says,
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
All of this comes down to common sense. If our job is to help get people into the Kingdom of God and there are issues that will take them out of the Kingdom, then we need to be able to help them with these issues by giving wise, godly counsel. This won’t happen by dumb luck. It will happen when we prepare ourselves to help by studying God’s word in that context, educate ourselves on the issues and make an effort to know who among us can help if we find ourselves out of our depth. It’s all about loving in practical ways. It’s all about not passing by, but binding up the wounds as best we can to help them back toward the Kingdom of God.
Have a great week,
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