This is Why We Do It

Last Friday, Breakthrough (the organization I work for, in case you missed that) held its Annual Benefit out at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare. By the end of the night, we had raised nearly $900,000, roughly 1/4 of our operating budget for the year. That's pretty amazing for an event that was free to anyone who registered.

The night before the big event, we all started to go loopy with the late nights, sticking labels, organizing volunteers and counting attendants and worried that with the current economy, etc etc etc. this year wouldn't be as successful as years past. But then a colleague wrote the following email (some parts have been removed) that I think reminded us all of what true success looks like.

Here's the email:

I have to admit that there are times when I feel anxious, overwhelmed, frustrated, even angry with our work. In my lowest moments I even question if what we’re doing can make a difference. Is there really hope on the horizon for our community? Are we really able to stand against the onslaught of the enemy that rakes the families of our neighborhood over the coals time and time again? Can we really turn the tide of addiction, violence and despair in the lives of those we encounter?

In those moments I always find myself turning back to Isaiah 58 and God’s call to his people to stand against oppression and injustice. It’s not simply a feel-good call to charity, but it’s a mandate to be God’s hands and feet – his foot soldiers in this battle against the injustice and oppression attacking our community.

Look at the progression in verse 6, God says:

⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?”

We are called to loose the chains and untie the cords of the yoke – to bring comfort and relief to the suffering. But we can’t stop there, we must work to set the oppressed free – to come along side the oppressed and bring them into the freedom of the Kingdom. BUT not even that is enough. God calls us to “break every yoke” – to completely obliterate the system of oppression so that the same cycle of injustice can’t be repeated. That is an amazingly powerful image to me. It’s a call that challenges us to continue on in spite of the overwhelming challenge ahead of us. A call that forces us to think bigger, think bolder about the purpose for our work.

And, lest we think this is something we can do from afar and without personal involvement, God says in verse 7.

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

God makes it clear that we are to be personally involved – sharing our food, providing shelter, clothing the naked. But I think the most cutting, powerful statement in this chapter is the call to not turn away from our own flesh and blood. Wow. Think about that for a moment. Sure we say that we believe that all people have innate worth and dignity because they are created in God’s image. But we often forget that we all share the same masterful Creator - that we are all truly family in the most real sense of the term.

It’s simple to dismiss the indigent, the addict, the gang banger, the homeless pan handler, the felon, the teen mother, or the child who’s never felt the love of their father or mother. It’s so easy to turn away. How much more would our lives be affected if instead we saw the addict as our son, the prostitute as our sister, the felon as our father, the teen mother as our daughter, the pan handler as our brother, and the indigent widow as our mother? Would it then be so easy to turn away? To turn our backs on our own flesh and blood? Yet this is exactly who God reminds us that they are - fellow children of the same masterful Creator, members of the same Family.

I want to challenge us (myself included) to move beyond thinking of the network model as a way to provide a support network, or open doors of opportunity and access to those whom we serve. Don’t get me wrong, those are all important byproducts of connecting people. But the power of the network, to me, is the call to bring disparate children of the Father together. It’s a call to not turn our back on our own flesh and blood, but instead to choose to partner our lives with family members whom we’ve tended to forget. To bring joy to the Father by loving our Kingdom brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers.

Isaiah paints an incredible picture of what happens when these things come together – when we break the yoke of oppression and get our hands dirty in the process by caring for our own flesh and blood instead of turning away. When we corporately fight to break the yoke and personally partner with those we’ve forgotten, amazing things will happen.

⁸ “Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

May we not shrink back, but work with boldness, freshly empowered by His Spirit to call together the Children of the Kingdom to break the yoke of oppression, break the hardness of our hearts and bring shalom to our Family.

*******************************************************************************

AMEN.