The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men I (1 Corinthians 1:25)

I’m engaged in an an ongoing conversation about good and evil with an old friend who makes no profession of faith. In this context, an appeal to the Scripture does not work, and when pushed he gave me the following preliminary definition. "Good is helping other people. Bad is harming other people." Who could argue with that? Well, the definition can take us so far, but only so far! To be fair to my friend, I should emphasize that it was preliminary.

I have had a book in my hand for several years entitled “Toxic Charity.” it is aimed mainly at the political right, since research has shown that the lion’s share of financial charity is given by people of faith. And the problem is that with the best intentions in the world, our "good deeds" can have unintended consequences. In response to famine for example, it has happened over and over that flooding the market with free food has resulted in the bankruptcy of local farmers. And this results in long-term dependency of those we are trying to help. Some solutions tomorrow.

But unintended consequences when attempting to help happens, not only on the political right, it also happens on the political left. For example consider what the left correctly sees as grave injustices, inequalities and abuse perpetrated on certain marginalized groups. In order to push through political reform to benefit them, the left’s preferred way of helping, more and more of these groups are accorded victim status. And the unintended consequence here, is to legitimize bitterness, and essentially to take away individual responsibility. In other words it’s the blame game all over again! I mean if it’s somebody else's fault, there’s nothing I can do about it right? The truth is never quite that simple! More tomorrow!

Father, this is a really difficult conversation, because both sides regard the other as uncaring. And while this is certainly the case on both sides at times, what is often missing, again on both sides, is wisdom to know how to help and not to harm. And so I pray this morning for wisdom for us all in Jesus Name Amen.