Week 15-Liberation

While working in a developing nation, there is a danger that all foreign missionaries, activists, and humanitarians face: white (or whatever persuasion) savior syndrome. Some of you have just pulled a muscle rolling your eyes because you are tired of hearing about white privilege, how helping hurts, blah blah blah… But hear me out. Many people—myself included—come into mission work with an “I am going to help these poor people” mindset. This thinking is dangerous; it assumes that the ones who are helping are intrinsically more valuable than those who are being helped. This mindset creates a division between the “blessed” who can help and the destitute who need help. This mindset demonstrates itself as deciding that it is permissible to be sloppy or unhygienic when making sandwiches for the poor because “They’re hungry. They won’t care.” It is expressed in statements like “Just give them a bag of random clothes—they don’t have much anyway.”

Throughout my years of doing foreign mission work (13 years now), the “I am going to help you” thinking has felt less and less…comfortable, correct, God honoring, etc. The problem was that I could not find a replacement for this thinking—why am I doing what I’m doing if it isn’t to help those in need?

Last week while doing my devotional, I read a quote by the Australian aboriginal activist Lilla Watson: “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” My mouth fell full agape as I read those words over and over. The thinking, the rationale, that I had been searching for was right in front of me. There are no longer two groups; there is just one—the imprisoned working towards universal liberation.

One of my biggest qualms with the “I’m here to help you” mindset was that assistance is fleeting. That sandwich is going to be eaten. The clothes will be torn. The house will fall over. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless are important and kingdom work. But, helping alone does nothing to address the systemic malfunctions that plague our world, perpetuating hunger, nakedness, and homelessness. True liberation, though, is lasting.

If my liberation is bound to others, then I can never be liberated from the grasp of hunger knowing that there are mothers digging through trash to find something edible for their children. There is no liberation for me if children on the streets sniff glue to fight away hunger.

If my liberation is bound to others, then I can never be liberated from the shackles of homelessness if there are people who, each night, must find shelter under a bench, in a box, or crouched under a building’s overhang. There is no liberation if a child is passed from relative to relative because no one wants him.

If my liberation is bound to others, then I can never be liberated from the chains of ignorance if there are 19-year-olds who never had the chance to go to school because notebooks and pencils were too expensive. There is no liberation if a family of five has to decide which children they can afford to send to school.

If my liberation is bound to others, then I can never be liberated from the constrains of desperation if there are young men and women who give up on dreams of a better future because sustainability is always out of reach. There is no liberation if aspirations are always subjugated to persistent and immediate needs.

The idea of liberation through Christ is found throughout scripture: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”-Isaiah 61:1. God anointed Isaiah to be a liberator to His people; we, too, are being called to liberate God’s people. If my liberation is bound to others, my job is not complete if people still do not have the freedom that comes through Christ. “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death”-Romans 8:2. This freedom should be the one that I place the most importance on, but, I must confess, this is the toughest for me. I love the idea of just “being the gospel” through my actions because that is easy for me—I am an actor who can put on a good show. That isn’t enough, though. For whatever reason, I have a fear of introducing people to a peace and liberty that I experience through Christ. This is something that I am determined to better because being light in the world is not enough if I do not point to its source.

And now the question is “So what do I do now?” That question is eternal. The answer will manifest itself differently for each person. Let it move you to action. Let not passivity campout within you—be bold fighters for freedom.