August 7
Scripture focus: Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. Galatians 6:1-3 (The Message)
Little words are sometimes the key to understanding.
In the case of boundaries to and for are super important. "We are responsible to others and for ourselves."
When Paul is referring to burdens – those heavy loads that we cannot carry alone – he's reminding us that as we live in community we have a responsibility to help people with burdens too big for one person to bear. (I like to think of burdens as the way a girl packs for a weekend on an exotic island – she brings a steamer trunk so that she's prepared for every occasion.)
For example, if someone loses their job and are on the verge of losing their home, in our community we seek to find a way to help our friend carry his or her burden. But we must do so within the parameters of healthy boundaries. Maybe it's helpful to provide financial counseling, even pay a mortgage payment or two. Perhaps what the person most needs is help writing a resume or finding a job. Sometimes, the most helpful thing we can do is let the person lose their house.
Why is loss sometimes a good thing? Because, there are times when "[y]ou're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you." Matthew 5:4 (The Message)
Suppose your friend comes to you and asks you for $1,000 to pay off a loan shark. You decide this is a burden your loved one shouldn't bear alone. You stroke a check. Then you discover that your friend went to Disney World for two weeks – a vacation that clearly your budget shows you cannot afford. What's up with that?
It takes a lot of creativity and prayer to figure out our part in the restoration process. Maybe giving the $1,000 was exactly what God wanted you to do – because he was asking you to be generous. Perhaps in your eagerness to help, you unwittingly enabled your friend to stay in denial about the true state of his family's finances. Who knows?
As you practice letting the bad out and embracing the good, opportunities to learn from practicing the principle of being responsible to help your brothers and sisters in need will abound. We'll learn together how best to help, and sometimes we'll get it wrong.
Tomorrow, what we're responsible for....
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