Our Kinship

I have been thinking about my attempts to do good work through institutions I support — after all, many of us were raised under the adage, “To whom much is given, much shall be required.”

So, last Sunday, we left church after a glorious worship service and were confronted by a man in need in our parking lot. He was hungry and asked for something to eat. Lunch was being served in our educational building for a group of visiting college students, and we recommended he stop by there for a bite. He was refused, and returned to the parking lot hurt and depressed. The question my wife and I faced was this…How could our church, with many institutional community assistance ministries’; avoid this small request for a meal?

Then I wondered, do we really look into the faces of those who seek our help, or do we merely throw them some small change, and drive away as quickly as possible to avoid them? The mentality that we “gave at the office” afterall…

G.K. Chesterton puts it well when he writes, “You must look into people as well as at them.” Could this be the reason we don’t see our kinship all around us?

I really tried to avoid helping the brother in the parking lot, but my wife took matters into her own hands. She went into the church, and brought the brother a meal in a matter of moments. They didn’t question her. She got no grief. After all, she had been a member of the congregation for 30 years. What a conviction for me. I was so busy thinking about the institution, that I forgot the brother in my midst.

Let’s not hide behind institutions. Our kinship in the human family is more personal than this. It was the late Frank T. Wilson who said: “I must never seek in my world, that which I cannot first find in myself.”

What are we really doing, to make a positive individual difference in Atlanta? Please share it with Higher Ground here.

Rev. Joe Roberts