“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.
