To
put it bluntly, I have learned that what some call “re-distribution of wealth”
doesn’t work. For a lot of reasons.
My
wife & I have spent a lot of time doing what we can to leave the most
positive & enduring legacy from our time of serving here. For her, it’s doing
children’s ministry & training those who are & will be involved in
children’s ministry. For me, it’s developing pastors to the highest possible level
as spiritual leaders.
You
may not understand this, but one of the biggest temptations that a missionary
can face is that of becoming the guy who gives out money. After all, there are
innumerable needs all around.
But
what happens when we redistribute wealth? When we do it in ways that are inappropriate,
it results in resentment, greed, & jealousy. Resentment toward the foreign “Santa
Claus” who has come to be the source of provision for meeting economic needs. Greed
& jealousy toward those who have benefitted from the well-meaning
benefactor. We run a very real risk of creating unhealthy welfare addicts with
our uninformed benevolence.
And
all the while, we feel really good about ourselves because we did something
praiseworthy in meeting a tangible economic need.
Luke
4:18-19 really speaks to this issue:
“The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He
has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the
blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of
the Lord.”
I’m
trying to communicate a lot of things in one short blog. Please feel free to
ask about why I see things this way & I’ll do my best to clarify it to you.
But
the bottom line is this: If you want to distribute something, it’s better to distribute the empowerment to create wealth,
than to re-distribute wealth. You will never meet all the needs. Those needs
will continue to afflict people long after you are gone or have used up your
resources. The people will still be in bondage to satanic schemes to keep them
in poverty.
But
if you work hand-in-hand with the Lord to do what Luke 4 says, you will leave a
lasting legacy of spiritual & economic freedom & empowerment.
This
has implications not only in the place where we serve, but also in our earthly
homeland.
No comments:
Post a Comment