Everyone's Needy...

On the blog Reformation Theology, there is a post called "Did Christianity Spread Due of the Promise of Power?", in which a response is given to someone's critique of missions and power. In the last part of the paragraph of the "Question from Visitor" section the following is written:

Missionaries just don't go into areas where people are rich, white, and not in need of social assistance. Why? Because if they do they are more likely to have doors shut in their face, be asked to leave, or be regarded as an annoyance. And that's because those richer people don't need the social services that the missionaries use to attract those poorer converts mentioned earlier.

Sure it might be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But check out this poem by Karsten Piper:

Luke 18.25
by Karsten Piper

He spread his blanket on the sand,
kneeled and arranged his bowls and tools:
hook, mallet, clamp, chisel, rasp, razor.

His smile glinted in the rongeur’s claws,
and upside down in the curette’s spoon.
Light shone out of the needle’s eye.

“Hoosh,” he said and began plucking hairs,
paring calluses, shearing wool, shaving
to the follicles, cutting to the quick.

He sorted these, trimming skin with skin,
hair with hair, into rows of clay bowls,
and set a large basin to catch each sour drip

as he sliced the hide and used both fists
to yank back the whole stubbled, gray pelt,
as wet and red on its underside as afterbirth.

He piled this heavily away, draping it
in clean linen, and turned to the meat and bone
heaving under sheer, tight membrane.

Sawteeth chewed into femur, rib and shoulder.
Pliers twisted and wrenched away tendons
until everything softened, canted, and collapsed—

yet not one sliver dies. Each ribbon and shard
bawls for the horror and hurt of their missing,
wishing for the old braying wholeness.

Pain bloodies evening and morning,
stabbing day after day from even the first cuts,
like the slow light of far stars.

Eyeballs and heart float alone in the last bowl,
dark and defenseless, quavering when he leans down
and they recognize in his eyes how little is left.

“Easy now, Camel,” he says and lifts me
in his fingertips, one quivering strand at a time,
through the eye of the needle.

Aren't we like the camels, in comparison with perhaps most of the world? If God chose to save us, might He not have chosen some others who are not living in complete poverty as well...?

Also from the Piper world is a post called "Overcome Contradictory Compassion", posted just today on the Desiring God blog. Here is a snippet from this post:

That there are conservatives who talk compassion for unborn persons, but feel little interest or compassion for their own neighbors, let alone the sorrows of the countless poor, does not make inattentive heartlessness less evil.

Isn't it interesting how we can feel compassion for different types of people? My heart tends to gravitate toward people who would on a societal level considered to be needy or people who in or victims of horrific social conflicts...but aren't we all in need? In need of Christ, that is...

Compassion passions toward particular people groups such as the 'poor' or otherwise 'marginalized' can act as compelling motivations to propel people to act in love. But what about the 'rich' people group who might live nearby? Both groups of people are equally 'needy' of Christ. It would do us well to keep the all part of Galatians 6:10 in mind:

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.