Reciprocity

I have been taking a class on human services this semester. It’s a general overview of the various practice settings and requires a final paper on a topic of our choice. I chose to write about adoption and foster care and the time it takes to get a child to a permanent home. In researching this topic, I discovered information on welfare and child welfare reform that happened in 1996 and 1997. This reform was based on a changing philosophy in the U.S. that welfare was not a right, but something earned by adhering to a basic standard of behavior expected from citizens of this country: “ASFA establishes standards for personal behavior, attenuates rights claims because of these standards, and sets comparatively severe and time sensitive consequences if those standards are not met. Both acts thus reinforce the idea that there are minimum civic responsibilities that obtain for all Americans. But they also endorse the claim that government has some reciprocal burden to help make sure citizens can meet these responsibilities” (Beem, 2007, p. 618).

I think the idea of a reciprocal relationship has not just affected our policy and legal standards; it’s affected our view of relationship with God. We expect to have a reciprocal relationship with Him - we do our part, He does His. We follow His “standards” and expect to be blessed for it. When God doesn’t give us what we want or expect to receive based on our behavior, we get angry with Him. We’ve “done our part” and expect everything to then fall in line for us. But I’m afraid that’s not how it works with God. He is not a genie in a bottle who will do everything we want just because we were well-behaved this week. He always puts much more into the relationship than we do and our puny little efforts (as excruciating as they may be for us) in no way pay our debt to God. I have to say that, although I am ever so guilty of getting angry with God when I don’t get what I want, I am even more thankful that I don’t get what I deserve: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).