The Weakest Link

By Rev. Brian Kirsch  

I looked up the meaning to what is meant by “The Weakest Link”. Here’s what I found: “The person who is making the least contribution to the collective achievement of a group.” Let’s play with this idea for a moment.

Working with organizations in the past that “helped the less fortunate” always had me thinking. When serving food to the hungry of the community, most volunteers eventually have the thought that some of these people really don’t need the support. However, the purpose is to support the people that really need food. So, we rid ourselves of the judgements of who we think deserves the help and who doesn’t. But are we really taking care of the weakest link?

Do we ever consider what contributions the hungry of our community are making? When we look at the farm workers who are out in the fields all day for minimum wage, we see they are making a huge impact on our food industry. Without them working so inexpensively, we would be hit with even higher food prices. That’s a huge contribution! Now the grocery stores are able to sell the food at affordable prices while working on a thin profit margin. They are definitely creating an excellent contribution. Now, the only thing the consumer needs to do is to go pick out what they want to eat and purchase it. This too is a contribution. This keeps the food circle going…

…but here’s where it all the sudden takes a turn. Now it’s time to complete the food circle by giving back the surplus food to the labors that got us the food at a great cost to begin with! These aren’t the “poor” people. These are the people making the biggest contribution to the food cycle. They’re feeding the “poor” people that complain about the food prices and then throw any food that’s left over away. Complete the cycle and give the surplus food back to the workers and thank them, not look down at them with pity!

In the Greatest Degree of Love, we experience the transformation of people when we hold them up for contributing to society. This is just one example. Who else have we held down by thinking we are better off than them? Don’t worry, I’m not coming down on you all…I learned this concept by experiencing it myself first hand from both sides!

The weakest link in a chain is the strongest… …because it can break the chain!