"Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain, in Genesis 4:9
It's happened to all of us. A friend or acquaintance approaches us, and they need some help or assistance. Maybe it's a financial problem they are trying to work through, or a relationship situation and they don't know how to handle it. They ask us if we have time to help, or the means to help, and the thought runs through our mind. "I have enough problems of my own." We have our own relationships we have to work on, our own financial situations to take care of, and it seems that we have no room to add any more to the burden.
It also happens in this way. We hear of a person we know who went through a difficult, challenging time, and the situation did not turn out well. We wish that we had heard about it sooner, since we might have had something that could have helped them through the situation. So we feel guilty that we didn't stay in better touch with them, and kick ourselves for not knowing their needs.
Cain asked the question, 'am I my brother's keeper,' because he was looking to evade his responsibility toward other people. He failed to recognize that God created us to live in community with each other. And over the past couple of years, I have been giving a lot of thought as to this sense of community that God created us to live within. And today, I just want to toss out a couple of thoughts on how this may apply to being there to help others.
Caring for others is not optional in the way God created us, nor in the way that God commands us to live. We are our brother's (and sister's) keeper, in the sense that we are never to stop caring for them and providing for their needs, as God gives us the means. Though we may not feel inclined to do so, we recognize that we do indeed have responsibility toward one another.
At the same time, God does indeed provide a limited amount of help and assistance that each of us individually can provide. That is part of His design, so that the community comes together to provide all together in times of need. While it may boost our egos to think that we are able to completely help all by ourselves, we also need to recognize that God has made it so that the full responsibility does not fall completely on one person.
We may also find ourselves thinking that we have enough on our plate, and no time to give help or aid to others. My question to this situation is this: are we failing to let others help us in our need? Once again, the community God designed is there to share burdens. While there may be certain parts that we find we simply have to bear on our own, we often simply don't want to ask for help or aid. We want to think that we can do it on our own. In fact, we want to prove that we don't need the help of others, and so we deny them the opportunity to play the role of helper and keeper in our time of need.
I cannot help but think that God's design for community is intended to be for our good. The sad thing is, we so often try to do it alone, and then hold ourselves guilty when we fail to either help others, or let others help us.
It's happened to all of us. A friend or acquaintance approaches us, and they need some help or assistance. Maybe it's a financial problem they are trying to work through, or a relationship situation and they don't know how to handle it. They ask us if we have time to help, or the means to help, and the thought runs through our mind. "I have enough problems of my own." We have our own relationships we have to work on, our own financial situations to take care of, and it seems that we have no room to add any more to the burden.
It also happens in this way. We hear of a person we know who went through a difficult, challenging time, and the situation did not turn out well. We wish that we had heard about it sooner, since we might have had something that could have helped them through the situation. So we feel guilty that we didn't stay in better touch with them, and kick ourselves for not knowing their needs.
Cain asked the question, 'am I my brother's keeper,' because he was looking to evade his responsibility toward other people. He failed to recognize that God created us to live in community with each other. And over the past couple of years, I have been giving a lot of thought as to this sense of community that God created us to live within. And today, I just want to toss out a couple of thoughts on how this may apply to being there to help others.
Caring for others is not optional in the way God created us, nor in the way that God commands us to live. We are our brother's (and sister's) keeper, in the sense that we are never to stop caring for them and providing for their needs, as God gives us the means. Though we may not feel inclined to do so, we recognize that we do indeed have responsibility toward one another.
At the same time, God does indeed provide a limited amount of help and assistance that each of us individually can provide. That is part of His design, so that the community comes together to provide all together in times of need. While it may boost our egos to think that we are able to completely help all by ourselves, we also need to recognize that God has made it so that the full responsibility does not fall completely on one person.
We may also find ourselves thinking that we have enough on our plate, and no time to give help or aid to others. My question to this situation is this: are we failing to let others help us in our need? Once again, the community God designed is there to share burdens. While there may be certain parts that we find we simply have to bear on our own, we often simply don't want to ask for help or aid. We want to think that we can do it on our own. In fact, we want to prove that we don't need the help of others, and so we deny them the opportunity to play the role of helper and keeper in our time of need.
I cannot help but think that God's design for community is intended to be for our good. The sad thing is, we so often try to do it alone, and then hold ourselves guilty when we fail to either help others, or let others help us.
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