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A Brownie for a Prayer

When approached by homeless people on the streets, I don’t give them money, but I don’t want to just walk by either. What’s the best thing to do? I pray.

Prayer blogger Rick Hamlin
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“Give to anyone who asks,” the Bible says in Luke 6:30, and anyone who has read this blog before knows how I struggle sometimes with how to follow this directive, especially when approached by homeless people on the streets.

I don’t want to give them money that might go to support drug habits or buy them alcohol, but I don’t want to just walk by and turn a cold shoulder. I will admit I’ve tried everything—carrying granola bars in my bag to hand out, slipping someone a buck or two and yes, shaking my head no and walking on by. What’s the best thing to do? I pray.

The other day on my way to lunch I was met outside the usual takeout place by a tattered woman with an uneven gaze, unruly multicolored hair, a quick smile, uncertain hygiene and few teeth. “Would you give me some change, please?” she asked.

“No,” I said, then took a deep breath and paused. “But I’m going inside that store and I can get you something to eat. How about a bagel?” I’d given her one of those before, a big multigrain bagel packed with raisins. If they put some low-fat cream cheese on it, it would a pretty healthy snack.

“I’d like something else,” she said, following me as I pushed open the door, coming with me right up to the counter. Geez, this is weird, I thought. Now everybody’s going to think I brought her in here.

“Just stay there,” I said, startling her. “I’ll get you something.”

“But not a bagel,” she insisted. “Do they have any desserts?”

I was about to go into a lecture. If she needed something nutritious, a dessert was not going to be it. Sweets weren’t good for you, especially refined sugar. I was trying to be careful about my own cookie habit. But then I looked at myself in the mirror next to the sandwiches and looked at her. Now, which one of us could have really used a pick-me-up, me or her? Was it calories that counted right now or something more? Really, Rick, she doesn’t need your lecture. She needs to know someone cares.

“How ’bout a brownie?” I said.

She smiled, covering her mouth so that I wouldn’t notice her lack of teeth. “That would be nice,” she said.

I bought her a brownie. Jesus doesn’t say anything about brownies in the Bible but he says a lot about the pitfalls of self-righteousness. Would that I wouldn’t stumble into the pride of certainty so quickly. Perhaps that’s why Jesus asks us to do the uncomfortable thing every once in a while. Not that I do it well, but I keep trying.

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