Galatians 6:2, "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (NIV)
Yes, would be my initial response to the question that I continue to ask today. But I must be willing to look beyond the surface of this question and beyond the surface of my human response to have an accurate answer. We would like to boldly proclaim that we are definitely a "caring" person and in most cases that would be a true and fair assumption.
But reality reminds us that there are times that our heart of care is truly challenged by the circumstances of the moment as well as the individual that may be involved in those circumstances. It is during those moments that we can pull out our well worn list of excuses/reasons of why we should not involve ourselves in that person's life at this particular moment.
I want to share an excerpt from this past Sunday's sermon at New River. I would like to challenge you to think along side of me regarding our need to care for others.
Is it true that we are living in a very narcissistic society in which we are taught to focus on ourselves? Let me remind you that often this narcissism leads people to forget about the needs of others and in some cases as these earlier examples noted we often just ignore the plight of our fellow human beings. Why the passivity? We have many rational reasons to justify our actions. “It is a dog eat dog world Pastor and every person has to fend for themselves.” “There are times that people just have to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.” “No one has ever had to help me and I have done all right, they will do just fine.” “They are stronger than they think; they will finally figure everything out for themselves.” “They got what they deserved.” But can all these reasons/excuses we give for our lack of involvement actually relieve us of our duty to care about the welfare of others?
I want to share an excerpt from this past Sunday's sermon at New River. I would like to challenge you to think along side of me regarding our need to care for others.
Is it true that we are living in a very narcissistic society in which we are taught to focus on ourselves? Let me remind you that often this narcissism leads people to forget about the needs of others and in some cases as these earlier examples noted we often just ignore the plight of our fellow human beings. Why the passivity? We have many rational reasons to justify our actions. “It is a dog eat dog world Pastor and every person has to fend for themselves.” “There are times that people just have to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.” “No one has ever had to help me and I have done all right, they will do just fine.” “They are stronger than they think; they will finally figure everything out for themselves.” “They got what they deserved.” But can all these reasons/excuses we give for our lack of involvement actually relieve us of our duty to care about the welfare of others?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment