Doing Good

I am part of the Church of the Nazarene--one result of the heritage of John Wesley and his emphasis on "spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land."

He encouraged, in one of his more famous sayings (quoted by Hillary Clinton no less), every follower of Jesus to "do all the good you can, wherever you can..." Whole quote is here.

Holiness can be so off-putting, at least on the surface. It conjures images of holier-than-thou, out-of-touch, irrelevant people.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Holy people (and everyone Jesus touches is holy), are the lights of the world, they are an alternate city on a hill that everyone looks up to and admires. They are the kind of people you like to be around. They make the world a better place with no strings attached. They do good. And who doesn't like that?

Jeremiah 29:7 is a mantra to them: They seek the welfare of the city they are sent to, working for the common good, not running away from it into some sort of protective religious enclave.

To wit: Last Saturday, we linked arms with Capital One (HQ here in Richmond) and sponsored a Beautification Day at Reid Elementary--Richmond's largest elementary school working to educate kids under the burden of 75% of its students on free or reduced lunch.

Capital One even footed most of the bill to the tune of $6K (we know what's in their wallet.) All this for the good of kids who begin school at a serious disadvantage. Get this. One criterion used in constructing new jails is current 3rd grade reading levels!

Those kids matter to God. Their situation matters to God. The quality of their education matters to God. The trajectory of their lives matters to God. So it matters to us.

Want to see God at work (as in, working through a company that charges what could be considered usurious interest to care for people he cares about)? Move toward the poor.

Here's a short video we'll be showing this weekend about the day.