What is the criteria?

A couple of months ago, a young woman posted a question, in one of the Christian forums, about giving money to the homeless on the street. She expressed several concerns:

She wants to make sure that her money would actually help individuals that truly need it. She also wants to make sure that these individuals are not going to use it for drugs or alcohol, etc. And she wants to make sure that giving to the homeless would not be a disincentive for getting work and becoming productive members of society.

This post quickly received quite a few responses. They ranged from the practical to the bizarre.

I, too, was eager to post a response. After all, I did move from the suburb into the heart of Baltimore to be involved with a couple of inner city ministries and have quite a bit of experience working with the homeless.

However, I stopped myself before I posted. While my suggestions were very practical, I wondered if they were truly godly responses.

As I reviewed my suggestions, it became apparent that they came from my own experience of what "worked" and what didn't "work". Like the other posts, in response to this young woman's questions, my suggestions were not based on any biblical principle.

However, I was unable to find any biblical verse to guide us on how we are to give alms effectively. One can argue that the bible teaches us to give alms through the Church. However, the story of the "good Samaritan" [Luke 10:25-37] teaches us that we are to also provide directly to the needy individual.

It became apparent that this issue requires the application of a broader biblical principle.

What is the criteria?

During the past couple of months, I asked this broader question when I encountered two major medical events. I was diagnosed with diminished kidney function. Shortly after that, I tore ligaments on my upper arm and shoulder. (See my blog entries for March 5, 2007 and May 5, 2007.) These two events resulted in me spending quite a bit of time in the hospital. Which means I spent quite a bit of time waiting. As I sat waiting to be seen by one specialist or another, my mind wandered through my life revisiting the places where I've travel because the Lord called, remembering the people of that I met through my travels, and re-evaluating the project on which I've worked.

The same question comes up: Did I make that big of a difference? My time, my energy, my money that I pour into these project: did the results justified the investment?

If I were to evaluate them the same as I would the projects that I do on my paying job, the honest answer would be no.

Several weeks ago, as I drove through my neighborhood in Baltimore, I passed a very old woman in very tight jeans thumbing for a "John". I laughed, thinking, "She has to be the oldest prostitute that I've ever seen. If she gets a customer, those two people would be the most desperate people in Baltimore!"

A new thought occurred to me. I moved into Baltimore to be involved with several inner-city ministries, hoping to make a difference in the city. My neighborhood has not changed much in all the years that I've been living here. Did I just wasted a large chunk of my life?

The answer came to me a couple of weeks ago as I was having lunch with my friend Anne. Anne is on staff with a college ministry. She is transferring to a position in Rome, Italy. Before leaving the States, she is raising support for her ministry. During our lunch, she related an experience she had while meeting with an elderly couple from whom she had hoped to receive financial support.

This couple asked Anne, how many people she had lead to Christ in the last couple of months. Then, they asked her, how many people she had lead to Christ in her life.

My first thought, upon hearing this story, was "What kind of question is that to ask?" Are they implying that we can judge the validity of one's ministry by how many people were led to Christ?

Didn't Jesus say:

"Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true." [John 4:36-37]

How is a sowing ministry to be judge using this couple's criteria? Is a sowing ministry any less effective a ministry than one that reaps?

The effectiveness of a ministry can not and must not be evaluated by the measure of immediate results. It is only after the return of Christ are we able to see the entire picture and see the part our actions play in God's masterpiece.

This principle applies to ministries and this principle applies to the giving of alms.

What, then, is the criteria?

In John 14:15-17, Jesus said:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

The criteria has to be and only be that we are obedient to what He commands; and He sent the Holy Spirit to be our Counselor, to guide us to what He wants us to do.

What, He wants us to do, may be to sow seeds that would not be reaped for years. The seeds may be misused by the recipient before it is made to good use by Him. We can not be the arbitor of whether these actions are effective or not; we do not have a full visibility to God's plan.

All, that we can do, is to listen for what the Holy Spirit calls us to do and to be obedient. That is the only criteria.

My answer to the young lady who posted the original question:

Don't waste your energy trying to evaluating the effectiveness of your giving; concentrate your effort on listening for His call and being obedient with the trust that what He calls you to do is part of His bigger plan to redeem the lost.