Harvest & Charity

Yesterday, we rode our mountain bikes through what seemed to be a tropical jungle.

It has been raining every day in Pennsylvania for awhile. The land is lush, the ground soggy. The air is thick with moisture, much like the bathroom after one takes a shower. Flies and mosquitos were using my head as a mother ship. I look my shirt off and wrapped my helmetless head like a doo-rag to fend off the attacks. I expected a Macaque to cry out from the jungle.

After slogging through, we came to a combination of a corn and wheat field. The corn was in ascendancy, the wheat looked like it was ready for harvest. Quite beautiful. And clear of the jungle.

I don't know my wheat well but I know that wheat has different growing seasons like winter wheat. So, this wheat was white for harvest. Like the Disciples who picked the grain as they walked through the field on the Sabbath, my buddy pulled a head off the wheat and separated the wheat from the chaff through a rolling of his hands, and ate the wheat berries. So did I. I think this was the first time I had ever done this. I gained a great appreciation of Jesus's teaching of separating the wheat from the chaff. Pressure, friction, as adversity, separates the good from the bad.

This also caused me to reflect on the biblical concept of gleaning. Where owners of fields were required by Law to allow the poor to harvest their fields after the first go through. The poor were obligated to work versus getting a hand-out. Be given an opportunity versus an outcome. Today, debates of charity often descends into a Liberal vs. Conservative diatribe with little examination of what works with charitable practices and what doesn't. Jesus said by the fruits we would know them and we must look at what happens to people in need when they are recipients of aid.

First things first, there are some people that are not able-bodied--the aged, the infirmed, and children-- and the Bible is quite clear that it is entirely appropriate to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Unfortunately, a lot of our assistance goes to able bodied adults. Yet, the issue here may be that the individual has insufficient opportunity to provide for themselves.  There is a need to create opportunity zones, fields as it were, where those in need are expected to contribute to their own sustenance through sweat. We lack these fields.

Several years ago, I helped paint a room at a ministry. Me and the other volunteers had to work around a bunch of men at the shelter who were watching a basketball game on TV. One of the dudes asked me to move out of the way of the screen when I was attempting to paint the wall. I thought to myself how ridiculous it was for me to painting a room for a bunch of indigent and lazy men sitting on their asses, who were recipients of charity. If they were in wheelchairs, different story. But, what was keeping these men from working was some misplaced idea that we were helping them. We weren't. We were hurting them and keeping them stuck in their chairs. I should have walked out and handed him the roller. Enough already.

In this discussion about the charity debate, there needs to be an effort to bring the Liberal side of the charity field and the Conservative side of the charity field together, where both sides listen intently to the concerns of the other. Both sides have valuable insight about this debate yet their respective perspective lack balance and wisdom. Both sides a partially right and partially wrong. Time to separate the wheat from the chaff in the charity field.