Pt 2. The Question

Now, this whole ‘magic bullet’ thing is a nice illustration/ analogy/ proverb/ thing, but it’s not incredibly rigorous. The abstract question behind that specific situation is actually more significant to me now. I got into working with people in poverty by copying Jesus, but I’m hitting some serious complexity.

A little way into the story, Jesus sent out his friends to do his thing, with quite a simple toolkit: hang out with people, share the good news about me, heal sick people, set people free from demons. Now although these are all still key tools in setting people free from poverty (trust me), I’m still left uncertain how to tackle other major forms of poverty we come up against in the UK: addictions, mental illness, emotional and psychological damage. For most people in poverty in the UK, these (often people suffer from all of them) completely control their life and keep them from any fulfilment or happiness. So tackling them is a serious priority for us.

The problem is, I’ve not found clear precedents in the Bible for how to go about this. With blind people, it’s daunting but obvious: God’s solution is for a Jesus-follower to ‘proclaim sight to the blind’ – heal them, now. Bang. Just like that. But what would Jesus do when he met the depressed abused alcoholic? Without a few examples of how God does it, it’s difficult to avoid just taking tactics from somewhere else.

I’ve slipped into a couple of camps, doing just this. I’ve copied religious crazy people (‘come on, you’re a Christian, why are you still feeling depressed?’), and scientific crazy people (psychologists have just ‘discovered’ that a caregiver having a good relationship with a patient makes them more likely to recover. Kindness helps people. You think?). It’s amazing how good all of us are at ignoring facts which don’t fit our point of view.

Trying to set people free through superstitious magic, and by using clever techniques, are both examples of us trying to make something happen by ourselves. Both are pretty impotent. I find it hard to honestly take credit for the change we are seeing in people at King’s Care. The only way I can understand it (it never fits my plans) is that we’re creating space for Jesus to do stuff.

There are so many people around us just totally stuck in misery, like quicksand, and sinking fast, that we owe it to them to stop fiddling around and call in someone who knows what they’re doing.