The Cold Within

The Cold Within - James Patrick Kinney

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.

Proverbs 14:12 - "there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

When the world goes its own way, disaster is inevitable.  Even more tragic is when the world's thinking invades the church.  Some Christians have allowed a selfish viewpoint to pollute the practice of benevolence, stating that Churches ought only practice benevolence to those who are either of the church or who are interested in becoming Christians.  This blog entry asks the question, "Is that really the way God intended?"  While the worldly way of thinking is accurately described in Patrick Kinney's poem, The Cold Within, God never intended for His people to behave in such a way.  

Matthew 5:13 shows Jesus drawing the metaphor concerning His followers, "You are the salt of the earth."  Salt had the function in that day of both preserving and making things more palatable.  How does that metaphor reflect upon Christian behavior? 

Preservation

It's defined as sparing from corruption, decay, or destruction.  It sounds pretty valuable, does it not?  Christians serve as God's tool for preserving the earth, understood to be referencing those who live on this planet.  Christians spare from corruption, decay, and destruction by sharing God's word with mankind, thus preserving them from the fate of hell.  Christians are to preserve!

Making things more palatable

While the idea of preserving is pretty straightforward and is rarely misunderstood, the function of making the earth more palatable seems to cause problems for Christians, nowadays.  Many congregations of the Lord's church readily practice benevolence to their members, but outright refuse to assist those who are not members, or who at the very least show interest in becoming Christians.  Some members of the church will even argue that being benevolent to the community "doesn't get results," and therefore is not something in which the church should participate.

The question is, what results are we talking about?

Are people supposed to magically know that they are supposed to desire a relationship with God simply because a Christian gives them a cup of cold water?  

Are people supposed to fall on their knees and beg a Christian to teach them God's way when they receive a meal or some clothing from the church?

Consider again the function of salt.  It does not preserve and make things more palatable to serve some other end.  Rather, it preserves things and makes things more palatable as an end in itself!  Charity is completely absent of any qualifiers, if one examines James 1:27.  Doing good is not limited only to those who will sign a contract to hear, believe, repent, confess and be baptized, according to Galatians 6:10!  As Christians work to spread God's word of salvation to the world (preserving) and work to make the world a better place (making things more palatable), we ought not place conditions on God's work.  Jesus taught us to be salt, not salt with conditions.  

So, the result we should be seeking while doing good is that we helped someone.  That's the motivation, and that's the end goal of benevolence.  Christians need to help, simply because people need help.  That's God's design.  Ceasing benevolent activity simply because people don't desire to learn about God would be the same as ceasing to practice God's morality because people don't desire to learn about God.  What other people do does not affect our faithfulness to God.  Let us as God's people be the salt that Christ intended, rather than adopting the worldly qualities of the cold within!

J