Helping another person can be damaging if it is not done with wisdom. It is like giving a hungry man a fish when you could have given him a fishing line.
We damage a man when we give him the dole instead of creating work for him by re-planting our waste land, creating parks, building and operating recycling centre (profitably) and constructing great public works, roads, bridges.
Too often do we reward others when they get into trouble and suffer. It's the "Let me kiss it better" syndrome and it encourages others to give in too easily, to fail and say "Look at me, I'm hurting, be nice to me."
There's a vast difference between helping someone in trouble and rewarding someone in trouble. To encourage someone to 'lean on you' is to undermine that person's authority and strip them of their dignity. In the long run you are not doing them any favour.
Most of us have, at one time or another, played the helpless role and said, "I am powerless. Please God, do this thing for me..." (and I'll give 10% to charity). By doing that we deny the God within and dump the whole mess on our concepts of a separated, outside God. What we should be saying is, "I'm in big trouble. Help and inspire me to help myself - to handle this challenge for the good of all concerned."
A man was walking through a forest when he came upon a fox with no legs. He was wondering how the poor creature had managed to survive when he saw a tiger approach with a deer in its jaws.
Hiding behind a tree the man watched as the tiger took its fill of the deer. when it was sated it took the remainder and placed it before the fox. This is a sign from God. It tells me that Gos will provide, I don't have to work myself to death. God will provide." said the man. So he went home, stopped working and waited for God to provide. After some time had elapsed, the man dies of malnutrition.
When his consciousness had withdrawn from the physical plane, the man, still in illusion, confronted God.
"Didn't you sent me a sign? Look what happened to me. What went wrong?"
god smiled upon the man and said: " I did, indeed send you a sign. What went wrong was that you were supposed to copy the tiger."
© David Hurst 1995
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