As a Christian and a business owner, it’s sad to hear someone who shares my faith doesn’t want to help other people from different faith background. How can you make impact in your community and glorify God’s name if you only help those who share your faith – or even don’t help others at all?
I come into a conclusion that small business owners who don’t help others – be a Good Samaritan and/or involve in charity – are those who are empty and shallow. How can you make money without thinking that you are more fortunate than most? What’s more, those who only help others from the same faith background are, to me, even shallower than that.
You might say, “Oh, my business is dying. I can’t afford to spend even a penny on things like that”; yet, you keep spending on things you don’t really need, saying them as the “necessary evil” to make your business works, such as buying an iPad and treat it as a business expense (without an iPad you won’t go out of business, right?)
You might also say, “Oh, my brother in Christ needs help – why I need to help someone else?” Well, you see, you can’t be a real Christian if you limit your “world”: Only doing business with those who are Christians, only helping others who are Christians, etc. You need to help others in need, regardless of their faith – THEN you can be an example of how a Christian lives his/her life.
Check out this bible verse…
and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
– Matthew 12:10-12 NIV
Helping others is not all about the money
Okay, let’s go back to the helping concept; you say that your business is dying and you can’t spend even a penny on “unnecessary” things. But you have the expertise; you have the knowledge. Why don’t you share them to those in need?
What other reasons you have – you don’t have time? I often use my “lack of time” as a reason to NOT helping others. I thought that if I can’t help myself, why I need to help others? If my ideas won’t work with me, why should I share my ideas with others? If an idea works, I must keep the idea for myself – end of a story…
All I can say is, if those are the cases, then you and I don’t have the heart.
Hey! Who are you to judge me?
Sure, you might say, “You are not in the position to judge me.” I might answer, “Yes, indeed – I am not judging YOU. It’s all about me.”
I often forgot that I need to help others; I often do business for the sake of profits, profits and profits; I seek help but neglect – even refuse – to return the favour by helping others.
And so, as I remind myself, I take the opportunity to remind you; I learn something as I write this blog post, thus I share it with you… it’s a takeaway – you can take it or leave it. Your choice.
Ivan Widjaya
You want success? You can achieve that by helping others to succeed