Thursday, March 17, 2011

Shake the Dust From Your Sandals

Many people are poor because of their conditions - for them I have compassion.
Others suffer because they never knew any better - even on these I have mercy.
But there are those who choose to lead the lives they lead - to these I shake the dust from my feet.
These are they who have been told, shown, helped and given to to the point where they have no need to do anything for themselves.

Many people imagine that the answer to poverty is 'money'.
But this is far from the truth.
Even if the poor are given large sums of money, many would later be worse off for the gift.
Most don't have the knowledge or character to do anything good with such resources.
Many would still focus more on status than they would on responsibility.
Most would be so concerned with impressing others that they would soon be broke again... but with a new sense of entitlement.

Christ understood this.
Even with the ability to call gold coins from the bottom of the sea in the mouth of a fish - he never made the poor rich.
Instead he laid the groundwork for wealth. (Humility)
He tried to teach the masses the character required to properly manage wealth.
He tried to teach the masses the ideology required to protect wealth. (taking care of others as they would themselves.)
He tried to lead by example by working as a tek?n (builder).

I haven't lost all compassion for those with less but I'm getting pretty close.
Every time I help someone, they revert back to their old ways.
Even when they acquire better goods, they have no idea of how to maintain them.
Sure, I'll help anyone.
But they have to at least be trying to do better for themselves.

2 comments:

  1. Teach them how to fish and walkaway. If they still starve then they were destined to die off. BUT the children are born to idiots so the goal should be to make sure they have the ability to counteract the ignorance of those who came before them.

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  2. This is the first year in which I declined to train a bunch of big girls wishing to lose weight for Spring/Summer.
    It's a lot of the same women, they've heard and done it all before - but every year they complain because they can't lose weight, because they always feel tired or that they cannot get a man.
    If a woman eats her way out of competition for the most desirable men - that's HER fault.

    Most of the families I mentor fail to take take of their new acquisitions and end up having to buy new stuff to replace that which should have lasted years.
    They fail to get the full value out of what they own.
    Forget being 'upside down' on a home - by failing to gat the full value out of ones goods, most people are always in a state of being 'upside down' on everything they own.

    But then they call me for help.
    I recently listened to a woman and I just said, "Oh...". When she asked what I thought, I just told her that it didn't matter because she never listens anyway. That she just reverts to her old ways and that she and her family would just end up back in the hood anyway.
    I still check on her mother, I still tutor her grandchildren - but as far as doing for others who always repeat the same mistakes... - I no longer care.

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