Reckless compassion with actions and in truth

Published 8:00 am Monday, September 23, 2019

I read a post on tumblr that struck a chord. No, it more than struck a chord; it was more like a giant gong was struck with a hammer, and I felt the vibration in my bones. It started off musing about how strangers are described as two ships passing in the night, but took the metaphor a step farther.

When the Titanic was sinking, there were two ships nearby that night: the Californian and the Carpathia. The Californian, though closer, did nothing to help, while the Carpathia turned and raced to help, doing everything in it’s power to rescue, to save. The post ended with the quote that reverberates in my soul:

“Yes, we are ships passing in the night, and when given the chance to turn away or do good, always err on the side of reckless compassion.”

Life is hard for a lot of people these days. Blame what mechanism you want: the economy, jobs going overseas, bad relationships, whatever. The end result is that people are struggling. People are doing their best, and often their best isn’t enough. They end up at the end of their rope with no where to go, and it seems everywhere they turn says, “Sorry, we can’t help you.”

There are families, local families, sleeping in their cars. There are local women with sick children and no job, who are looking for shelter so their child’s illness doesn’t turn deadly. Hundreds of people are one illness, one broken-down car, one lost week of work away from being in the same situation. People in this situation could have somewhere to go – Family Promise of Tiftarea.

While there is a shelter for men, a shelter for victims of domestic violence and a shelter for pregnant women, there is no shelter in Tift County for homeless family units and those who are not victims of domestic violence. Of particular focus are the approximately 50 to 60 children in the Tift County school system identified as homeless. Family Promise of Tiftarea was founded in 2015 to meet that need.

Family Promise is a national organization that has been implemented in other community very successfully.

Family Promise of Tiftarea would not only provide safe shelter at night and a hot meal while allowing families to stay together, it would help people make a plan to get back on their feet and become self-sufficient. It would provide a way for people to get the respite they need so they can make the climb back to being able to provide for themselves.

It would do so by using church buildings, which are typically empty throughout the week, as temporary housing for families. Thirteen churches take turns hosting families for a week, providing meals and a safe place to sleep. A caseworker is tasked with helping those families move into sustainable housing and provides resources and education to help make that happen.

But people in Tift County don’t have Family Promise of Tiftarea to turn to, because Family Promise of Tiftarea can’t get off the ground due to a lack of participation from area churches.

It isn’t that there aren’t churches in Tift County. There are 190 churches listed in this newspaper’s church directory. One hundred and ninety. Even if we look just at the ones inside Tift County, that leaves 131 churches. That’s a lot of churches.   

With that many churches in this county, I absolutely cannot believe that only seven have agreed to be host churches and three have agreed to be supporting congregations for Family Promise.

St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Tifton First United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church of Tifton, First Assembly of God, Our Divine Savior Catholic Church, Bethany Missionary Baptist Church and First Church of the Nazarene have signed up to be host churches and Dayspring Inspirational Church, Traveler’s Rest Missionary Baptist Church and Grace United Methodist Church have agreed to be supporting congregations.

That is a total of 10. Ten out of 131. Ten out of 190.

I’m not sure what words to use to describe the feelings this engenders in my heart. I probably can’t use too many of them in print; they are what we call “after 5 p.m. words.”

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18 (NIV).

With actions and in truth, it says. That means if you claim to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and hold his teachings in your heart, put your money where your mouth is. Step up. Show up. Build a longer table. Open your sanctuary doors to the homeless, the hungry, the sick, the lost. Bleed your coffers dry in an effort to ensure not one more child in this county goes to bed hungry. That not one more mother contemplates giving up her baby for adoption because she has nowhere to live. That not one more grandfather doesn’t eat because he’s giving up his food stamps to help his children and grandchildren eat, because they make too much to qualify for government help and not enough to pay the bills.

Family Promise should not have a problem of not having enough churches stepping up to help the least among us. They should have every single house of God in this county knocking down their door to offer their help and support.

Are you the Californian, turning away to preserve your crew, or are you the Carpathian, striving to show, with actions and in truth, reckless compassion?