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【Family, Country, World and Public Welfare】
Author: Bella
1 Alms only deepen poverty
Donations must be a familiar thing to everyone. You may have participated in a collective fundraiser at your school or unit, or you may have left some money in front of people begging on the street.
When we donate, we must have been moved and sympathetic in our hearts, and after donating, we will also be happy about our actions and feel that we should have done something for the unfortunate people.
There is a question that few people may have thought about: Have you ever noticed what the money you donated out of love was later used for what things and what effects were produced?
Here, I would like to share with you two stories, that is, about the ultimate destination of the donation.
The first story is written by the author of an official account about his personal experience. When he was young, the author once passed by a church, and he saw a beggar begging outside the church, and he stepped up to the beggar and gave him a dollar.
When it was about the time of the next week, he passed by again and found the beggar still there, so he went over again and gave him a dollar.
Then, in the third week, the beggar appeared there on time as if he had made an appointment with someone, and the author began to feel that something was wrong, and he wondered, is this kind of charity really meaningful? If you don't give alms, when he really doesn't have money to eat, he may still pick up bottles and cartons to sell, trying to support himself. However, once your alms become a habit, he will become dependent on this charity and become even lazier than before. Does this harm him?
My dear friend, do you think that this author's thinking is very reasonable? In fact, if you pay close attention, you will find that everywhere, there are some people who regard begging as a profession. They go to a place to beg not by chance, but by careful choice. In front of churches, temples, and busy streets, there are often more beggars. Moreover, most beggars appear there at regular intervals, they will have their own "work area", and they will also have fixed "working hours".
Think about it, isn't frequent alms bad for beggars and almsgivers? For beggars, a fixed handout may make them develop a habit of indulgence and dislike; To the giver is tantamount to giving your hard-earned money to a lazy person.
The second story is from a non-fiction book that I saw before. I forgot the name of the book, but there was one plot that left a deep impression on me: the author belongs to a non-profit group that has a great influence in the local area, and they are dedicated to helping the poor out of poverty.
They did a lot of research upfront to find out who really needed help, and they did careful calculations. Calculate how much money you should give each family each month.
Despite all the preparations, things went much better than they expected. It turned out that in the follow-up counseling and help, they found that the money given to the poor was not used for improving their lives, improving education, and other beneficial aspects that they expected, but was used for eating, drinking, and having fun.
For example, a black mother with no regular job and four children raising her children independently. After getting the money in the first month, I immediately took the children to a pizza meal, and then used the rest of the money to buy a bicycle for the children.
Of course, people in the non-profit group are very angry. Ask them why they don't use the money to buy some healthy food, to learn some skills to survive, to buy some books for their children, etc.
The people who were asked seemed very dazed, because they had never thought about it this way, they felt that life was too bitter and needed some sweetness, so when they got the money, they immediately went to change some sweetness for themselves.
Do you say it's because they're lazy and bad? That's not all the case. You think, people who are used to living a desperate and hard life, they have no hope or hope in their hearts, so what they can do is to try to make their lives as sweet as possible. What kind of people would invest in distant places? It must be someone with hope, someone with expectations for the future. And people who have struggled in poverty for too long, they can't see their future, and for them, the pain and happiness in front of them are eternal, so they can't spend their money on building their own lives with faith.
2 What is Real Help?
Sharing these things today is in no way to deny everyone's love, or to say that we should not sympathize with and help others, or think about problems related to poverty.
By no means so, because, sympathy, pity, care...... The brilliance of these human beings is extremely important and precious, both for individuals and for communities. Only, what we are saying is that our love is governed by reason, and we are responsible for the wealth, resources, and abilities that we have, and make sure that they are used for the right thing.
When we want to give and want to give, we should not only be driven by emotions and feelings, but also ask ourselves: If I do this, will I objectively stop sin or will it encourage sin? If something that moves us actually encourages sin, then the sympathy and emotion in our hearts cannot prove our justice and innocence.
Don't do things for a good purpose and end up fueling sin.
In Dostoevsky's book The Demons, there is a passage: "The pleasure of giving is a haughty and immoral pleasure, the pleasure of the rich man's appreciation of his wealth, his power, and his position in comparison with that of a beggar." Almsgiving only corrupts both the giver and the recipient, and it does not serve the purpose because it only deepens poverty. ”
This passage from Toon's pen should really illuminate us. We can use this to examine our hearts: when we give alms, in addition to inner sympathy and pity, do we also feel good about ourselves because we are a good person, because we are better than them? Especially when our charity is done in front of others and is praised by others, do we feel more that we are really a capable and good person? This feeling of arrogance can lead a person to become addicted to giving, and then gradually lose oneself in one good thing after another, forgetting that he is also a person with a dark heart and in need of help.
3 Is it more blessed to give than to receive?
But we also often hear the saying that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Since simple charity breeds sin and deepens poverty, how do we understand this statement?
In fact, the objects of "giving" and "receiving" are not necessarily property, or necessarily just property. Alms are the lowest and most limited form of charity.
As the old saying goes, it's better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish.
If you give him food, you might as well teach him how to get it. Rather than using the talents of some people to support another group of people, it is better to give another group of people the ability to stand up and create wealth, rather than just sharing the wealth of others.
Of course, that's not to say that financial help isn't important. Financial help is still an essential way to get people on their feet. It's just that this method can only work well in the hands of wise people.
Wealth is for the edification of people. Wise people will make good use of their wealth and invest it in good deeds that will truly produce good results, rather than turning it into fertilizer for sin under the control of arrogant ego.
I hope we have love, a love that is truly persevering and enduring. I hope we have wisdom, wisdom to really help others and build ourselves.
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[Since you're here, don't go.] Focus on "The Vow" and let's meet again in the next topic. 】