When Do We Stop Helping “One of the Least of These”?

(picture found on joyshope.com)

      This question has been on my mind for the past week. Here in this post I will try to give you my answer. But first let me tell you the story of the preacher and I when it comes to helping ‘one of the least of these’.

     When the preacher and I were first married, we worked for various owners of harness horse stables at different race tracks on the east coast. This is where I discovered what kind of servant my husband was.

     There are plenty of rough characters on these race tracks but there  are also very good and wonderful people. We had invited a beautiful young girl, who worked with us, to church one Sunday. She told us she didn't have a car, so we told her we would pick her up. Where did she live? Right in the middle of a very run-down neighborhood. Upon driving into this neighborhood we were approached several times by drug dealers asking if we wanted to buy what they were selling. Even though this was a terrible place to be, and we were frightened by these people, we picked her up every Sunday that winter season.

     Another time, there was a young man working at our stable, who clearly was on drugs. My husband talked with him and discovered he wanted off of the drugs but couldn't get away from those who were supplying the drugs. So, we invited him to live with us in our one bedroom apartment. He slept on our couch, ate our food and came to church with us. Just about every day we were harassed by his drug dealers who just so happened to work at the same race track. Unfortunately the young man left our home and went back to his old way of life.

    The preacher and I have been helping people and opening up our home ever since. There have been success stories but also there have been stories with not so good endings. Even today the preacher gets a lot of phone calls saying that they need help – gas, food, counseling – and it seems like they take and take and take seldom giving back with no apparent effort to make better choices. Sometimes I get upset and express my opinions and then I feel guilty.

     So when do you stop helping? Upon studying and talking it over with the preacher, this is what I have discovered. There is the principal that “God helps those who help themselves”, but what if they’re not willing to help themselves? In the preacher’s last few sermons we see that Jesus explains to the Pharisees and Rulers (Luke 13 & 14) that if they don’t heed his word there will be consequences. The parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:12-24) shows us that all will be invited but not all will come. He is saying that if God invest in you, or if people invest in you and you don’t respond, then there will be consequences.

     I don’t believe that God wants us to stop helping, but I don’t believe He wants us to continually give until there is just nothing left to give. I think He shows us, time and time again, that we need to see some consistent progress in people and when you don’t see that, then it’s time to let them go.

     Do we stop loving them? No! But we have to stop helping them. Do we stop praying for them? No! Pray that they will understand the love that was shown and how to respond to that kind of love.

     Service has an intrinsic value within itself. It has value for you, and maybe we shouldn't worry if our help was not received. God has a bigger picture of their story and our story. In all things, we must give, even ‘one of the least of these’, over to Him.