Marvin Olasky: Point them to God

Home » Meditations » Meditations » Marvin Olasky: Point them to God

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. Mark 6:34

“Some people think of poverty fighting like they think of dinner table discussions: it is a violation of etiquette to emphasize the importance of religious beliefs. But the facts leave us no choice: successful antipoverty work, past and present, has allowed the poor to earn authentic self-esteem not by offering easy, feel-good praise, but by pointing them to God.”

Marvin Olasky in Renewing American Compassion (New York: The Free Press, 1996), 161.

Olasky’s research has made positive contributions to American compassion for three decades.

In the seventh of his seven marks of compassion in this classic book, he offers today’s quote. His research reveals that the best way to fight poverty is to point the poor to God.

I am learning this first-hand across the majority world, and especially in my GTP work in Malawi with Palmful of Maize. People don’t want a hand out. They want a hand up. They just want some help.

Broadly speaking, I wonder if people who find it uncomfortable to talk about how to really help the poor, feel that way because they themselves do not want to do the work, the hard work of pointing them in the way of Jesus.

I am learning that we must look at people not with judgment but compassion, as sheep without a shepherd, as lost and needing help. From there, we combine compassion with biblical teaching, like Jesus.

We point them to God.