Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

Every day before I begin work, I spend my first waking hours of the morning as a volunteer strength and conditioning coach at a high school. Formally speaking, my job is to work with athletes to develop athletic qualities through strength training to help them perform better at their sport. Informally, I’m the “lifting coach.” Either way and at the end of the day, my focus is strength training.

One thing I know for certain about strength training is what an athlete does outside of a training session is just as important as what they do during a training session. Factors like nutrition, hydration and sleep can either enhance or inhibit weight room development. Because of this I continually stress to my athletes the importance of proper nutrition, especially after a training session. Every morning I would tell my athletes what kind of healthy snacks they should be packing to eat after they train. And every morning when I asked if anyone actually brought these said snacks, the answer was a resounding “no!”

Initially I was very frustrated by this lack of compliance. “These are just typical teenagers who don’t listen to authority and aren’t committed to what they’re doing,” I reasoned. But that isn’t the whole story. The school where I coach is in an under resourced community. 70% of the students are on a meal assistance program. While the task of bringing a healthy snack to training may appear simple to me, the reality is that for many of the athletes I coach it isn’t easy.

My athletes’ lack of response to my refueling advice and their personal challenges at home were on my mind a few weeks ago when I was reading a familiar story in the Bible about Cain and Abel. After Cain killed Abel, God questioned Cain about his brother’s whereabouts. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” was Cain’s brash response. Essentially Cain was telling God, “Why is Abel my problem? He can take care of himself.” When I read this, I was brought back to the high school weight room and the athletes I coach. I saw my attitude strikingly similar to that of Cain’s: “These athletes aren’t following my directions. They just don’t get it. Sure they may lack resources to practice good nutrition, but that’s not my problem. After all, I’m not their keeper.”

In that moment I was convicted because as Christians we actually do have a significant responsibility to be “my brother’s keeper.” We should be looking after people who are in need and strive to meet those needs by being generous with our time, gifts or resources. This looks different for every person and every circumstance, but in that moment I decided that for me to be my brother’s keeper to the athletes I coach I should start providing post-training snack options. I decided that their problem of not having proper nutrition was in fact my problem too.

Since then, I’ve been brining energy bars, fresh fruit and protein shakes to give away after training sessions. I still may only be the lifting coach to my athletes, but now in my mind I’m also my brother’s keeper. I share this to encourage you to be your brother’s keeper as well. Is there a person at work, in your church or in your neighborhood that has needs, but you brush off because they’re not your problem? What would it look like if you accepted the responsibility to be their “brother’s keeper?” Unless you draw blank on these questions, which I highly doubt, I’m guessing you just found another way to be generous. What’s stopping you?

Ben Berg is the Lead Generosity Coach for Dynamis Ministries where he works with individuals and couples to create Generosity Plans that help them develop their God-given potential for generosity. When he’s not helping others grow in generosity he’s trying to grow his own generosity through volunteer coaching at a local high school and with the Special Olympics. Regardless of age, activity, or ability, Ben enjoys seeing others make progress from who they once were to who they will one day become.