Redemptive Entanglement: Having Both a Mind and a Heart for the Poor
by Keith Jaspers with Introduction by Tom Bassford
Introduction:
The seeds of what we do through Significant Matters surfaced nearly thirty years ago on the heels of a trip to Venezuela. Twenty-five of us spent 10 days working on a building project with a church/school. We all felt stretched and a sense of satisfaction that we had entered another world and brought the resources of our world to bear upon theirs in a meaningful way.
But something wasn’t right. I didn’t know it at the time but I was struggling with the limits of simple charity and short-term volunteerism. Charity is not a bad thing it is an incomplete thing that when left to itself does more long-term harm than good. It’s the starting point, not the end-point. It exposes us to the needs of others and the feelings of being fortunate ourselves. It momentarily opens our heart and, as such, usually opens us to self-examination and the possibility of getting more deeply involved.
That’s where it all started for me. It’s been a journey which has re-shaped a lot of what I thought I knew about things like poverty, charitable relief and what it takes to move good intentions into real and lasting solutions. The first and most important discovery along the way came as an insight into the kind of commitment it takes to really affect lasting change.
In all of the people I came to admire and where I saw the most lasting changes I always saw a kind of redemptive entanglement in operation. There was a level of self-sacrifice that showed itself willing to enter into the complexities of another person’s circumstances with a long-term commitment and without preconceived answers. It was a humbleness willing to set aside its arrogance and embrace its ignorance in order to understand things it could not yet imagine.
Redemptive entanglement became a kind of semi-conscious lens through which I see life. It is an awareness much like the one we have toward cars that are just like the ones we drive; we don’t look for them but we see them seemingly without trying. So, I see redemptive entanglement in varying degrees all around me and I am drawn to it out of an insatiable curiosity and a profound respect.
I see it in the young father or mother struggling to be present for their 8-year old’s soccer game at a certain cost to their career. And to the other end of the spectrum I see it in the lives of people like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, Jr. who gave their very lives for the helpless and oppressed. It’s a type of relationship to someone or some cause that is both purposeful (redemptive) and willing to pay the price no matter the cost (entanglement).
I’ve come to believe that the capacity for redemptive entanglement is something God has hard-wired into us and is the necessary means through which most real and lasting change comes. Without this kind of commitment, we simply do not possess the staying power to be part of sustainable change. The work becomes too hard, takes too long and lacks all the (unrealistic) efficiencies that we naively think will “turn things around.”
One of the goals for both Significant Matters and SATtalks is to share the stories of people who embody redemptive entanglement in the work they do. In my way of thinking the word “redemptive” represents the idea of having a mind for the poor while the word “entanglement” means to have a heart for the poor.
Here’s a story of redemptive entanglement by Keith Jaspers, founder and President of The Rainbow Network and the work God is doing to help people break the cycle of poverty in rural Nicaragua. Keith’s story and his SATtalk demonstrate what can happen when we possess both a mind and a heart for the poor.
Tom Bassford
“This Great Redemptive Entanglement” | Keith Jaspers, The Rainbow Network
Following Christ’s lead of working with the poor, has always been a deliberate part of my adult life. I have come to understand the scriptures in a way that does not leave me an option in that regard. I volunteered and donated to may causes, always related to working with the extreme poor and eventually was lead to the excellent work of Habit for Humanity.
I became a member of their International Board in its early years and had the privilege of working side by side with Millard Fuller, Jimmy Carter, Tony Campolo and others for many years as a volunteer and board member. Those experiences, combined with my personal faith and business experiences, molded and developed my ideas of what a mission should do. They taught me how to approach problems, what real partnership means, how personal pride and satisfaction fit into it, and what it takes to realize and maintain real and effective change.
Early on, I learned the importance of direct and personal relationships with the community as well as the need for long-term commitments to bring about lasting change. Tom Bassford with Significant Matters calls this combination of relationship and commitment, “redemptive entanglement.” It’s a concept I can relate to in my experience with God as well; He has a personal relationship with me and is committed to me long-term! I find that it is impossible to proceed with any meaningful activity or project in either relationship without this close entanglement and redemptive spirit. Our success can all be traced back to relationships made, developed and the transfer of ideas that this kind of approach makes possible.
The longer I worked with The Rainbow Network the more I found I could not shut it off. I was always problem-solving for what it takes to bring about real and sustainable change in a community. The more I thought and wrestled with the problems these communities were facing the more it seemed right to combine intentional projects in health care, housing, economic development and education as a holistic approach. The more I studied and developed my concepts the more convinced I became that I could put it into practice.
And that’s when it happened. I was very busy operating my business and raising my family, but I just couldn’t let this go. I had become redemptively entangled with the people in rural Nicaragua and I had to give it my all. I am convinced that this is what God wanted me to do. He pushed me into business, then into Habitat for Humanity and other relationships to equip me with the management experience, contacts, and the money to implement this “entanglement”!
The Rainbow Network is now 21 years old. Many times, over the years I tried to pull back from that work. I focused more on business and less on the needs of the poor. No matter how I did that, God kept pushing and pulling me back to the work and needs of the Rainbow Network. Just when I thought I was free, the phone would ring with a problem or challenge that I just couldn’t ignore. Every time I tried to pull away this life of redemptive entanglement both with God and The Rainbow Network would pull me back… and I welcomed each call and each nudge.
I could not nor did I want to let go. My obsession, my faith, always fueled with any number of inspirations from the Bible, (including: Mat. 22: 38-39; 25: 44-46; Luke 3:11, 12: 48; John 13: 34-35; James 2: 15-17, and many others) pulled me back like a magnet. Old friends would appear with some thought or idea that fit perfectly with my need at the time. One member of our Board frequently says that “God has a way of giving the Rainbow Network just what or who is needed at just the time it is needed”. This is true.
The absolute joys and pure satisfaction of seeing lives changed and saved, God intervening at just the right moment to see the impossible function perfectly, watching the development of these families who are or were among the poorest and least educated in Central America, grow and mature before my eyes is exactly what I prayed for. I have found my redemption and my fulfillment by finally “giving in” and enjoying my part in this “Great Redemptive Entanglement!” Why did I try to avoid it?
Watch Keith Jaspers 2016 SATtalk – “A Holistic Approach and Lasting Results”
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