A Reflection on Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny" Lesson 15
Several years ago, I took a group of teenagers into DC to serve lunches. We had been doing this for years but on this particular occasion we were met with a guide.
Our guide had previously lived on the streets and gave us a tour of the area showed us where people lived and where they felt safe. He introduced us to several of his friends and then told us something that I’ll never forget.
“People living on the streets are more willing to receive help from teenagers and children because they are less threatening than adults.”
Most adults I know are quite intimidated by teenagers. What he wanted us to understand was that when young people go into the streets to feed people, they see the humanity in the people they serve in ways that adults are often incapable of doing.
Adults look for the most efficient way to get the job done. Teenagers and children see the image of God in the other person. They smile, they ask questions, they enter into space.
This is what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus entered into humanity.
Maybe when we look for good causes to support, we should look beyond metrics and results and focus more on how they go about accomplishing their mission. Are they making the world good?
Consider the proverb about teaching a man to fish. When we teach someone to fish, we don’t hand them gear and send them on their way, we spend a day with them. We talk. We listen. We enter into life together.
We give something of ourselves to the other person. We empower. Empowerment is such a buzz word, but what does it mean to give someone power?
Maybe the more important question is: what does it mean to take someone else’s power, their agency? What does it look like when we fail to see the image of God in the other person?
When we look at our holiday spending this year, whether gift or charitable giving, how do the organizations and corporations that we commonly engage with either strip away or build up the power of the people they work with?
Do they feed thousands efficiently or do they restore dignity and honor to a few hundred?
(I will caveat that with the need to recognize the difference between emergency situations and ongoing support programs. There are situations when efficiency means the difference between life and death.)
How do they treat their employees? What is their governance structure? Are they in the business of making the world good or are they just a business? Do they bring restoration and wholeness?
Are we spending our money in ways that make the world good? What are the true fruits of our labor?
This week, we voted for change, but our power lies not only in the ballot box, but with every dollar we spend. How are we exercising our power?
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