At one time or another, everyone has been in the situation where they were looking for help but found that somehow they were not qualified.
Earned too much money
Didn’t earn enough money
Was not a refugee
Wrong sex
Not a veteran
Not a minority or wrong race
Not enough education
Too much education
Lived in wrong geographical area (Zip Code)
The list goes on. None the less, programs always have a particular criteria for qualification. In social programs provided by the government or by faith based organizations, one much pass through the hurdles in order to become qualified.
The bottom line is this when it comes to solving your problem. There is no program that remedies your flight, your situation.
Enter our Lord, Jesus. Jesus does not offer a program per se. Jesus is a people person. His basic qualification process is a simple one where you admit to being a sinner and needing God to control your life. That is it.
Next comes one-to-one assistance as Christ then walks with us through the journey of our problems and provides solutions. There are no hoops to jump, no real criteria other than being human, and no being good enough or any check sheet of past histories. All are qualified who seek help.
And this should teach Christians and the church something about service to others. With programs, people will seep through the cracks.
Too, nothing compares to one-to-one personal service to God’s children. Face to face ministry solves the shortcomings of programs. Also, programs at times can be extremely impersonal, cold and removed from human experience and emotions. Programs and their hoops can weigh down people so much that they are in fact nothing more really than back breakers and spirit breakers—the very opposite of their intent.
Following the example of Jesus is the first route we should embrace. Where programs are designed by human, just as with anything else we have, we will have blemishes and failures. One to one encounters cannot fail if trust is firmly embedded with Jesus for He promises to help.
With Jesus, there is no longer the answer, Sorry there is nothing for you.
Hard Times Ministries 
Two things:
First to commiserate…
I recall when I got divorced several years ago. I was looking for a church that had a “divorce care” group. I was in a dark place for a while there, and I really needed help. The church was my best hope – the Body of Christ, right? Yeah…
So I showed up on a Wednesday night group at this one bunch having heard great things about them in years gone by. Problem was… it was a light night. Only me and one other lady showed up. The couple leading the group had a series of videos on DVD and the lesson that was scheduled next was for how to help your children deal with divorce.
There was a problem though…
Hmmm… where do I start?
Well, to start, I did not have any kids. So on its best day, this video was not going to be useful to me. But then I really must ask: Is there seriously a 30 minute video on this topic that is going to help anyone? I would imagine this would be the topic for a whole support group that would meet for a dozen weeks, actually. But we got the video on it.
BUT I DIDNT HAVE ANY KIDS. AND I MADE UP HALF THE GROUP! I mean, seriously, could we jump to the next video maybe? The one about loneliness and depression maybe??? How about the one dealing with finances??? How about the one dealing with drugs and alcohol??? How about prayer?
No. We got the video on helping our kids deal with the fact that their parents aren’t going to honor God or their commitments after all, but here’s how we can tell you that stuff is still important anyway!
So, fully half the class found the thing completely irrelevant, but the program was inflexible and could not make an adjustment.
That is my commiseration.
Second, though, I think the church should be helping all of us individuals with all our individual needs to find our place within the complementary body. I may be a knee and you maybe a foot, and thus we may have different needs, but I would not want that fact to lose sight of the other larger fact that we need each other and that together we are telling a single story that is bigger than just my part or yours.
So, if we spend all our energy placating the needs of my knee and indulge the knee at the expense of the foot and/or the rest of the body OR even just treat the knee as if the rest of the body is there FOR THE KNEE and not for the whole body, then that would put us out of kilter with God’s will too. I think sometimes our seeker-friendly attitude would almost suggest that. And it is worth mentioning so as to ward it off.
Thanx for the great post!
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Thanks, brother. you got off to the right ‘foot’ on that one.
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