Redemption. Is it worth the time?

After the recent hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, it is good to ask the question; what are we doing? Pretty vague question, I know.

After having served in a small poverty stricken inner city in South Louisiana for 5 years, I know a little bit about hurricanes and what they can do to an already economically and spiritually devastated area. Hearing reports from the national news centers proclaiming Gustav wasn’t as bad a hurricane because it did not hit New Orleans. In that statement lies a huge problem for the people in poverty across the States. Unless you are apart of the masses you are no one. There is no caring for the individual anymore. Why? Because, it is an individuals’ responsibility to care for individuals. We are our brothers’ keeper. 

Whole blocks of people are willing to rearrange their lives, their vacations, their families to go and help in huge disasters like 9/11 and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. However, what about the local family whose house burned down? What about the kids whose parents were killed in an auto accident? Most of us rely on the government to intervene on the devastation in people’s lives whether it is one of the magnitude like we recently saw or one that impacts merely a few. We as the public and often as Christians are content with hoping for someone else to step in to do the work for us. We might chip in some money and a prayer, but what could we do? What could you do?

These are the questions we need to confront ourselves with. Instead we wait for poverty or homelessness to creep up and confront us. Why are we not searching them out? 

 So I’m the problem guy right? Here are the problems, but where are the solutions? This is where we can get creative and a little dangerous. Solutions can be as small as a conversation trying to restore dignity to a person’s life, or they can be as grand as inviting someone into your home to clean up and eat a good meal. Redemption is a great thing for our generation to talk about, but it is much more difficult for us to help see people follow the path of redemption. What are you doing?