Selflessness versus Practicality

For lack of a better title... but I was actually thinking about the Christian life. To build up to the point I want to make, let's first set the base for the argument.

No. 1
Every good Christian knows that missions/evangelism/sharing the gospel/whatever term your church uses is the be all and end all of Christian living. It's the Great Commission. Every professing Christian should be involved or at least show some concern about missions, to a greater or lesser extent.

No. 2
Christians are called to a self sacrificial life. The pursuit of wealth or pleasure for pleasure's sake is regarded as vulgar. We are to give to the poor, take care or the orphans and widows. The needs of others should be placed above the needs of oneself. In other words, to live a selfless life.

The Issue
Coming to the crunch - how practical is this kind of life? I'm not even talking about the comfort and convenience, but the basic practicality of it.

I just witnessed a real-life scenario which brought this issue starkly to life.

There's an earnest, devoted Christian family, and I mean the entire clan - aunts, uncles, cousins. All are somehow or other deeply involved in Christian work - pastor, elder, youth worker. You name it, someone in the family's doing it. They encourage their children to serve the Lord in whatever way possible. Those who have 'secular' jobs are in the 'noble' professions such as teaching.

They're kind folks who do the best they can and serve the Lord whole-heartedly.

We're in Malaysia, and it goes without saying that no one in this family is rich by any standards.

One day, the elderly man in the family falls ill - the kind of illness that causes immobility, helplessness and a drastic change in his life. Being the loving, caring family they are, everyone rallies together. Many changes and adjustments will have to be made. This is the kind of illness whose effects are felt beyond the primary sufferer. At the very least, the sufferer needs constant, round-the-clock care and a special diet. To improve his chances even more, he needs regular medical attention and physiotherapy, equipment such as a wheelchair, special bed, and other things that a bedridden person would require.

The entire family gathers together, and there is comfort in their love and sense of shared burden. But beyond that, they need money. Hard, cold cash. For nursing care, doctor's bills, treatment, medicine, equipment, special diet... for everything.

It's a large, three-generational clan. But nobody has the money! Not the middle-aged parents, or the working young adults. I doubt there's insurance.

What happens to the elderly man? His elderly wife is already exhausted from caring and worrying and not knowing what to do. Yet he is not receiving the standard of care he should be getting.

Contrast this with a family that is reasonably well off. (And yes, it's a Christian family as well.) It's a hardship when a beloved family member suffers a debilitating illness, but having the financial means to be able to care for the sufferer takes a huge burden off the family. And the sufferer receives the best possible chance of recovery and regaining some semblance of his former life.

So how do we square the issues?

A Christian colleague once shared with me: she thought that sometimes, Christians get carried away with their desire to serve and give their lives to the Cause. She used the word 'dreamy'. I agree whole-heartedly.

Christians with their head in the clouds fail to realise that there are practical issues to deal with when making such monumental decisions. There will always be bills to pay.

Who's going to take care of your aged parents when you run off to the far-flung corners of the earth to mingle with tribespeople? What happens if you have children? What if there are emergencies? When your elderly parents fall ill, where's the money for medical bills going to come from?

Some like to give the standard answer of having faith in God and trusting Him to provide.

Is God going to pay the hospital bills with a heavenly credit card?

What about the commandment in the Bible that a Christian should take care of his family?

All that selfless altruism is fine when it's just you. Go live in the jungle and no one will miss you. But if you have dependents, people who need you, how can you leave them to fend for themselves while you give all your time, energy and attention to people whom you don't even know from Adam? Where's the logic in that?

I wish that family had the money. Two generations of working adults and they can't support one frail old man's illness. What if (God forbid) something else happens? Someone loses their savings, a house catches fire, an accident, another illness???

I wish that family had the money. I wish God will work a miracle and send a gift to them. Better yet, I wish God would heal the old man!

But it's not likely to happen, is it?