What pushes us to help others?

Every human being struggles to have something; to own something. What we own determine whether we live well or not; what we have make us face particular challenges. Isn’t that right? For example, if one has a car, they are less likely to reach to the workplace late. On the other hand, the people who do not have are likely to arrive to the workplace late. Moreover, the people who have jobs are less likely to suffer from the hunger while those who are jobless mostly suffer from the hunger. Having said all the above, I think that the world is composed of the haves and have-nots; the people who own particular things and others who do not have some of the things. It becomes a huge problem when there is someone who has almost nothing to help him/her to survive. In this case, that person usually has no basic needs to enable him/her survive.  This brings the idea of supporting some people who do not have some basic needs to survive. When there is someone who needs a help, most of us realize that. In college, I know the poor students and ones who are rich. I know the students who have a lot of money and those who cannot afford for a pair of pants. At home, I know people who eat three times a day and others who eat once. In every environment we live in, we know the people who are struggling with life and others who are living queens’ lives. In human nature, we have got this small portion of our hearts that pushes us to help the poor or the people we think that they need our support to survive. However, the feeling to help others is stimulated by certain factors, and personal satisfaction is the main reason.

There are times we feel very satisfied with what we own and reach to the level of helping other people. In times we have enough food in our stocks; in the times we have jobs and our monthly salaries are satisfying; the times our parents have given us more pocket money and we feel that we have to help those who can’t get even a single penny. All those are some of the determinants that push us to help the poor.  This makes me say that people usually help others when they have more than what they basically need to survive or when they get the surplus. I am saying this because I don’t think that you can give part of your slice of bread to the poor while you know that that bread won’t fit a quarter of your stomach. I think this makes more sense. No one can donate something to the poor knowing that he/she is giving part of his only bread of the day. Don’t you think the same too? Usually, there are couple reasons why we help others. Sometimes we give because we have got excess, as I mentioned earlier above. When we earn more than what we basically need to survive, we tend to give the extra resources to the poor or other people who need help. For example, I can give 10 kilograms of Irish potatoes to the poor because such potatoes would rot if remained in the stock. In other times, we help the poor or the afflicted because that is the part of our beliefs. For instance, the Muslims tend to help the poor because that is part of their commandments. As believers, we tend to help the afflicted people because the Bible teaches us to help our neighbors. We tend to help others in order to do the same as what Jesus Christ used to do when He encountered the poor. In this case, we are afraid that if we do not help, God will accuse us with the crime of ignoring the poor. Do you think that it would be sinful if we did not help the poor when we were able to do so? I think that every God’s believer has to help his poor neighbor. Therefore, I think that the believers help the afflicted more compared to the pagans or atheists. Moreover, we are stimulated to help others by our colleagues. There is this time I saw my friend Annick giving a coin of 100 Rwf to a street beggar, and I was stimulated to do the same next time.

Having discussed all the above, I think that every human being has got something that pushes him to give. I don’t care what makes you feel like you have to help the poor provided that you donate something to someone in need. In case you have any other factors that push you to give, don’t hesitate to share them in the comment box below.