After nearly two decades of service to our neighbors in need, I’ve learned an important lesson: People struggling in poverty need hope. And few things offer more hope than a job.
As Christians, we must never lose sight of our responsibility to go beyond alleviating the immediate suffering of those in poverty, but also to help people help themselves to rise out of poverty — for good. We must endeavor to empower those in need so they can feed and clothe themselves and their families in the future.
As Christians, we are called to charity, but we’re never told in the Bible that charity shouldn’t include work. In Deuteronomy, God instructed His people to leave the extra wheat in the fields and grapes in the vineyard for the poor wanderer, the orphan and the widow, but He didn’t say to glean or gather them for the poor. For anyone who wanted help, work was required.
My own experience through the work of Watered Gardens Rescue Mission has reinforced to me the power and hope of work — because I’ve seen it firsthand. The transformational power of work overcomes addiction and dependency, helping people discover self-sufficiency and a life of meaning instead.
The Prophet Isaiah calls on us not just to feed people but to “pour yourself out for the hungry and to satisfy the afflicted.” When we invest ourselves like this to really help people out of poverty, Isaiah goes on to promise we’ll “be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
In our ministry, we believe that every person has a reason to hope that his poverty will end. But there is no meaningful path toward that goal if it does not include that most fundamental of anti-poverty programs: a job. People who come to us experience work and learn there is reason to hope.
Their needs are met in exchange for work in our Worth Shop—and they get much more than clothes and food. Through work, they find dignity in their self-sufficiency and freedom from government dependency. They find a purpose.
Every person is a noble creation who deserves the opportunity to succeed. We are failing in our Christian duty to love our neighbors as ourselves if we fail to provide all people, of whatever background, the real hope of a better tomorrow that comes through a job. Smart policy and smart charity that prioritizes work for able-bodied adults helps ensure that we uphold that duty.
Hear James Whitford at this year’s SATtalks, October 24-26
James and his wife, Marsha co-founded Watered Gardens Gospel Rescue Mission in 2000, now a 50 bed mission working with the homeless and poor, meeting about 20,000 needs every year. He also directs the True Charity Initiative, calling communities to effective charity and freedom from welfare through connecting non-profits, educating community and advocating improved public policy.
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