Honoring God with Our Substance

In a world as profoundly abundant as ours, it is a societal failure of monumental proportions that anyone go without safe and comfortable housing. Yet here we are. Quakers everywhere, in the communities where we live, work, and travel, encounter people who are housing insecure. Some Friends, themselves, lack stable housing. In this issue of Friends Journal, we share the stories of Friends who are not content to look away from this distressing reality, but rather follow Spirit’s leadings to care for our neighbors—and in so doing set out upon a generative cycle of kindness.

Jesus’s words in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, are cited by multiple authors as part of what drove them to act to combat homelessness and provide care in the many ways they have.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Reading the stories gathered here, I am struck by a few things. First, it’s remarkable how much housing is interconnected with our other needs. Talking openly about it and seeking solutions within our reach as individuals, families, communities, and societies: these steps may be keys that unlock greater human happiness and fulfillment, keys that allow for a fuller expression of God’s light through the lives of all our neighbors. The second realization I have is this: no matter where we are, be it in a small rural community or a big city, there are ways to use what we have to aid others. The needs of unhoused people in an urban center and those in a Walmart parking lot may look different, but wherever we are, there are neighbors and therefore an obligation of care.

We are fortunate to have some excellent Quaker models of urgency and clarity in the exhortation to do something to help. Sitting with these stories prompted me to page through John Woolman’s Journal. In an entry from 1759, recalling the proceedings of a yearly meeting “under the weight” of Friends’ deliberations regarding slaveholding, Woolman quotes from the epistle born out of their fruitful discernment:

To keep a watchful eye towards real objects of charity, to visit the poor in their lonesome dwelling places, to comfort them who through the dispensations of divine providence are in strait and painful circumstances in this life, and steadily to endeavour to honour God with our substance from a real sense of the love of Christ influencing our minds thereto, is more likely to bring a blessing to our children and will afford more satisfaction to a Christian favoured with plenty than an earnest desire to collect much wealth to leave behind us. . . .

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true . . . whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things . . . and do them, and the God of peace shall be with you.

“Think on these things and do them.” I look forward to hearing what Friends today are led to do—and to sharing their stories with you, reader.