Just yesterday I was driving down the street with a dear friend on our way back from Sam’s Club. I was enjoying my 89 cent, outrageously oversized fountain soda that you can only get at Sam’s Club (which, of course, you MUST get when you make the venture out to the Sam’s), when we saw a man, holding a sign that said, “I’M HOMELESS. NEED WORK.”
My friend immediately said, “Oh… I can’t look at you. I never know what to do.” I chimed in and said, “I know, I wish I COULD give you work…I would if I could.” I found it interesting that we both decided to voice our thoughts as if we were actually speaking to him. Apologizing for our inability to help him in his struggling state… hoping that somehow he would understand and we would feel better.
Why is it that we find ourselves struggling to overcome an encounter with these “cardboard signs” and the faces who hold them? I am wondering if instead of answering the question, I start off by asking a few simple questions that I am currently asking myself now:
What if we are really able to give/offer people something greater than what is in this world? And do we really believe that? Do we find our confidence in that?
Of course, I found myself reading Acts 3 later on, which is the account of Peter and John healing a beggar at the temple gate called Beautiful in Jerusalem. Here are two fairly uneducated, ordinary men (Acts 4:13) who encounter a lame man from birth begging for money in the busiest entrance to the busiest section of the temple at that time of day. Men AND women were able to enter this part of the temple through the Beautiful gate and it was also the place where people gave money to make sure the temple could keep operating the way it should… the tithes and offerings room! This beggar knew that location, location, location mattered.
I wonder how much money this man made every day at the gate? I wonder how many people felt sorry for him and gave him a little change. I wonder how many walked by, averting their eyes, knowing that they were short themselves and/or had other plans for their money (to keep the temple looking pretty and functioning, of course!). I wonder how many walked by saying “I wish I had something to give you. But I don’t.” I wonder how many thought, “I never know what to do when I see you.”
Of course, this encounter has little to nothing to do with financial responsibility/generosity. As I said before, here are two fairly uneducated, ordinary men who have an ordinary encounter with a man that is ordinarily sitting at this Beautiful gate, trying to earn a living the only way he can.
But this story is anyhing but ordinary.
These are two ordinary men who are PUMPED about spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. They have lived with Jesus and have now been commissioned to share and tell the redemptive, healing power of the resurrected Christ. They are now filled with the Holy Spirit—yes, it’s true—and are leaving their mark wherever they go. What I find interesting about this story is that these ordinary men KNOW they have something fantastic to share, something bigger than spare change to wipe the guilt off their shoulders or feel good about themselves—even bigger than reaching out and doing what THEY can do to love the man… this story isn’t about what the men can do alone. It’s a story about what the men are able to do WITH the Holy Spirit—and knowing that it is something radically better than some money. Do I know what I have?
When that beggar got up in the morning that day, I bet you he didn’t think he was going to walk… and I bet he’s glad that some dudes who believed in the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit GAZED into his eyes (Acts 3:4), saw HIM and shared the healing power of Jesus Christ with him instead of walking away feeling physically incapable of helping him.
Friends, the convicting word that I share with you today that the Father convicted me with as well is this: Jesus calls us to gaze at the broken and to remember what we are ultimately called to share with people…His love, His healing power, His redemption. Sometimes, we are called to do that through giving of our finances, sometimes we are called to do that through helping something find employment, or providing a meal, but SOMETIMES… we are called to trust in the power of Christ, gaze at people who we could not help ourselves (Peter and John were broke) but with the Holy Spirit can offer them riches beyond riches and live abundantly. Do you believe your God is bigger than your physical abilities? Do you share with those who you feel inadequate to help? Find encouragement, be bold and press in to the higher things He calls us every one of us to do in spite of our limitations—when we are weak, He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Pam
Pam
Pam, I see that fellow with the sign so very often on the corner of 83 and Market st. Every time I am disturbed - and wonder...should I stop and give him $$ (and hold up traffic in that area!) ...or wonder if he would work as hard at getting a job he might not be there week after month...ot what....So I drive past and feel guilty - - for a minute or three. And so struggle what JEsus would have me do related to that man homeless and looking for a job.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a good blog.
Why do I feel guilt when I see him?
ReplyDeleteWhy do I not want to make eye contact?
Is he honest or is this his job? (I know beggars can make big bucks. I have seen him walking from the place he parked his car. I have also seen someone park nearby - looked like he was picking him up.)
I think I will stop and chat with him some time this month - ask him for his resume, maybe invite him to church.