Charity Suffices, Love Transforms

     A year ago, I read a book called The Irresistible Revolution, written by Shane Claiborne. This book is hard for me to describe. It basically tells you how to "live as an ordinary radical".  Shane gave up a nice, warm, dorm room in order to go sleep on the streets with the poor. He wanted to know how they felt, he wanted to join them. 

"Tithes, tax-exempt donations, and short-term mission trips, while they accomplish some good, can also function as outlets that allow us to appease our consciousness and still remain a safe distance from the poor."

This quote from Claiborne is risky, but I completely agree with it. "Charity can be a dangerous insulator". Giving money or canned foods is easier and it does help, don't get me wrong, but the change comes when we get our hands dirty. When we act! 

"Rich and poor are kept in separate worlds, and inequality is carefully managed, but not dismantled."

Change will not come from just managing the amount of poor and homeless people, it will come from breaking the barriers of society and dismantling it. 

"The church becomes a distribution center, a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich comes to dump stuff. Both go away satisfied, but no one leaves transformed."

If we think about Jesus and how he touched the lives of the poor, we don't see him giving charity, we see him giving love through touch, through breath, and through life. Love is in no way the same as charity. Charity suffices, love transforms.