I recently began reading the book “When Helping Hurts,” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I’ve heard about this book in the context of reflecting on attitudes and methods used in “Christian Outreach” that are…less than helpful. I’m reading it to increase my capacity to engage a conversation about the attitudes and methods of ‘mission’ in my local context and in other environments.
A few chapters in, the authors are offering a ‘theological framework for poverty.’ I’m not sure I agree with everything they’re saying, but much of what they say is not untrue: poverty is not just material, poverty is spiritual, relational, emotional, etc…and any ‘help’ that’s given that only addresses material poverty ignores the other dimensions. And “until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good.” I don’t disagree.
But then here’s the question posed at the end of the chapter:
“How worthy are you of God’s love expressed through Jesus Christ?”
I grew up understanding (whether correctly or not) that the right answer to that question was: “absolutely not worthy!” Accepting, understanding, and being transformed by God’s love was first of all rooted in my brokenness and my acknowledgement of that brokenness. In this perspective, underneath any faith or belief in God’s love for me was a core belief that I AM NOT WORTHY OF THAT LOVE. I don’t deserve it. There’s nothing about me inherently that God (or anyone else) would love. Talk about poverty!!!
But what if addressing poverty of all kinds isn’t in our mutual understanding of brokenness, but is in our mutual re-claiming of worthiness?
Could it be there’s a different way to understand what Paul is saying in Romans when he says “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8)? Could it be that we ARE indeed ‘worth’ the love that God showed to us in Christ? Could it be that the love God has for us exists in the midst of and despite our sin and brokenness? Could it be that just because we are human, by our very nature we are worthy of love?
If humans are worthy of love from the start–sin or no sin, brokenness or no brokenness–that changes everything about how I approach those I perceive as ‘poor’–regardless of the nature of that poverty–spiritual, emotional, material, relational. And it transforms how I address my own poverty.
So maybe it’s true that whatever we do with “low-income people” will do more harm than good until we can admit our mutual brokenness. But maybe it’s not just our mutual brokenness we need to admit…maybe it’s our mutual worthiness.