Jeremy Courtney, founder of Preemptive Love Coalition, moved his family from Turkey to Iraq in January of 2007 to work with a nongovernmental organization, stirred by the overwhelming needs of the people there. It didn’t take long to identify pediatric heart disease as a major one.
“Our response to a local request introduced us to a group of 700 other kids who were waiting for similar help. When we took our ideas to local organizations, they confirmed our findings, gave us more information, and showed us more than 4,000 kids waiting for surgery,” Courtney says. In an area where issues of terrorism and poverty may overshadow other needs, he realized his purpose in Iraq began with meeting this medical need. “I fear that too often we rush in with our ideas and set our agendas without a very good grasp of what the priorities of the people are. We sometimes assume that we love their country or their children more than they do.” Obviously, we want to talk with Jeremy about what is going on with ISIS, the Yazidis and the persecution of Christians in Iraq but also what Preemptive Love is doing in their work of pediatric heart surgery.
My guess is that will leave us with just a few minutes for a lesson and I’ve decided to do something short this morning but focused on our response to the issues and opportunities we have just heard about. We could all give countless examples of the needs that confront us in this world. Just yesterday in the local paper I read at least ten stories or reports about people who need help. Their house has burned down; their child is sick; they need school supplies; children are abandoned; non-profits have lost their funding; and the list seems endless because it grows every day. The stories you read today are replaced by even more tomorrow and it seems impossible to decide what to do and how to help. Do I respond to everyone or wait until something moves me emotionally? Do I stop reading the paper and watching the news? Do I ask to be taken off all the mailing lists of humanitarian aid organizations? Do I cut myself off or be overwhelmed with need? Do we respond to the needs of the world as Ann Coulter suggested this week? “Wouldn’t the wiser thing have been to stay home and work for good here? If Dr. Brantly could have “turned one single Hollywood power-broker to Christ, he would have done more good for the entire world than anything he could accomplish in a century spent in Liberia.” In other words, how do I avoid becoming weary in well-doing? How do I escape the trap of “compassion fatigue” because the pictures, stories, horrors and over stimulation of breaking news deadens me?
I’d like to suggest a few things quickly.
1. First, we have a commandment to “love the brotherhood deeply”. Throughout the New Testament and especially in the writings of John, Paul, Peter and James we read these words repeatedly.
Philippians 2:1-4: “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
James 2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
1 Peter 4:8: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”
1 John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
2 Corinthians 8:13-15: “Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”
2. But, how do I decide who is my brother I am to love deeply? Is it everyone – the brotherhood of man? Is it all Christians everywhere? There are over 2 billion Christians in the world and it is a fact that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. What am I to do with these commands? We know that faith without works is dead. We know that somehow giving to the relief of our brothers is “proof” of our love (2 Corinthians 8:24) and a test of the sincerity of our love (2 Corinthians 8:8) and therefore is not an option. We know that we cannot profess to love God if we do not give toward their relief but how do we know what to do next?
There is no formula but there are guidelines for us in Scripture.
a). We are to be loving but not anxious and that includes anxiety about how much we can do. Peter says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” This means our anxiety about compassion as well. We are not to be, as Oswald Chambers puts it, “amateur providences” where we feel responsible for the entire well-being of the world. But how do I do that? I’ve always liked what Edmund Burke said, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” Condemnation, guilt and the fear of punishment as motivations for compassion are not what God desires. Cast your anxiety on him about what you can and should do. To begin any other place is to guarantee frustration, dissatisfaction and disillusionment.
b). James describes a particular kind of wisdom that is distinct from the wisdom of the world. The world cannot access it but we can. “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” (James 3:13) In other words, God-given discernment produces good deeds done with humility – not selfish ambition. Sometimes our desire to make a difference or an impact or be strategic is nothing more than a form of selfish ambition. Instead, our giving should be part of deeds done in humility. Generosity will produce humility and not pride.
c). Peter describes the way we use our gifts. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” We are to be trusted managers of God’s gifts in serving others. The word administer is the word “oikonomos” and it is the word from which we get economics. It was the term for the person who managed the household. It means being one who is trusted with the property of another – not hoarding but not being a spendthrift either. It is using things in a way that is pleasing to the owner.
d). But how do we escape the trap of never doing enough? How do we avoid the guilt of having too much and doing too little? Here is what John says. “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” (1 John 3:19-24)
There are times when our hearts will condemn us and we will feel guilty. That fear of punishment will goad us into giving. That’s not what God desires. Later in the book John says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” (1 John 4:18) Even though Paul says in 2 Corinthians that “each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion”, the heart is still “deceitful above all things” and there needs to be another standard – and that is not a rule or a formula but a person. It is the Holy Spirit.
e). The ultimate test of our giving is in 2 Corinthians 9. Does God get the thank you note or do we? “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:12-15)
The best giving is that which ends with thanksgiving to God – not just the donor. The best giving is that which is directed by spiritual wisdom that comes from God – and this wisdom is “first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”
God does not desire for us to be anxious – just responsible. He does not want us to give out of guilt or fear but out of our knowledge that whatever we do it will result not just in relief or solving problems or making a difference but thanksgiving to him.