Neighborhood Ministries

When I was young, I was not taught about God but I was taught Christian values because my parents grew up in church. When we had massive medical bills from my illness, the church did not care about us, its only concern  was that we pay our tithe so my dad demanded that neither God not church be mentioned in our home. Because I had Polio and was bullied a lot, my values were basically survival putting me first, yet I held Christian values as a standard because that is what I was taught by my parents. When I met a group of Christians in high school, they cared about others, including me. They encouraged me to join a church, and I found the same love and concern there. During high school, I worked for a while in the inner-city. It was vastly different then mainstream America. Christian values were so imbedded in mainstream society that even those who did not believe in God held them as a standard. In the inner-city, there was very little belief in God. Life was basically survival of the fittest. Over the years I have seen the influence of the church decrease as it no longer teaches Christian values, and its members no longer live out those values in their daily lives. Many of those in church now view life from a self-centered view and are very little different than those who don’t attend church. That is why I wrote the series on values.

The second ingredient for life is to feel needed. Without that ingredient, we may survive but not really live. There are an increasing number of people who don’t see any meaning in life. The world says you are just the result of a series of  accidents of nature. A blob of tissue has no purpose, it just exists. Many people seek meaning through their work or through seeking fame or fortune, only to see it rust, vanish in a fire, or get stolen. People used to find purpose through their work and men were prone to commit suicide after they retired because they no longer had any purpose. However, today many people no longer find meaning in work and simply put in their time until they can retire and enjoy life. Unless they find something meaningful before they retire, retirement will just be a continuation of the same old struggle to survive. However, the Bible tells us that God  created us for a purpose. Each person is individually molded by God and has a unique purpose. The Bible says God has given each one of us gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. When we do not use those gifts, the church suffers. The church needs to seek to help its members find their gifts and use them through meaningful employment or through volunteer work.

There are two ingredients needed for life. I am not talking about breathing and having a heart beat, those are needed for survival. To be truly alive, someone needs to feel wanted. We are seeing an increasing number of suicides because people feel they aren’t wanted. If people feel no one cares about them, they may feel the world would be better off without them. I am reminded of a young girl. I was called to a railroad bridge because she was thinking about jumping. She had no gross disfigurement, she had not lost anyone  close, and had not been jilted by a boyfriend, she just felt the world would be better off without her. She felt she was only taking up space. She felt if she ended her life, very few people would notice and those who did would probably be glad that she was gone. In our world, people are increasingly isolated. They are lonely even in a crowd. Many cannot name a single person that would miss them if they were gone. They may look normal and act normal, but they are dead inside. They go through the motions of living but they are merely surviving. I was one of those. I was just a poor crippled boy from the trailer camps. The only ones that seem to notice me were those who enjoyed bullying me, until someone told me that the God who created the world, cared about me and gave His life on the cross for me. However, they didn’t just tell me, they showed me by the way they cared. That changed my life. There are people all around you who are just going through the motions. They are surviving but not really living. One great crisis could push them over the edge to where they feel the world will be better off without them. You can help them have a new life by sharing the love of God with them.