Would You..................

[MK202002]

I drove by a guy in an old school bus this morning he was obviosly living in. He had a sign that said "Out of gas." I though the Wal-Mart parking lot was an awfully convienent spot to run out of juice... but what was the worst that could have happened? I would have been out $20 bucks! I should have done that...

Recently I listened to a song on the radio where a guy was just talking (you know those songs) and he was talking about a situation he saw where a homeless man was begging and a lawyer said that he wouldnn't give him money becauuse he was afraid that the homeless guy would just spend it on booze or something. The singer said he told the lawyer that was what the lawyer was going to spend it on anyway, so he might as well give it to the homeless man.

Why the bias when talking about mispent money? We're not half as concerned about how businesses spend our money as homeless or poor. I think in our hearts sometimes we just despise the poor..

I mean, you know what I did with that money that I could have gave him? I bought overpriced artery clogging fast food when I had already packed my lunch from home. God forgive me.

[ladypeartree]

not giving money to someone to spend on "booze" is less about worrying about the waste of money as worry about putting too much temptation in someones way ...do you give an alcholic the very thing that is killing him/her ?

[MK202002]

not giving money to someone to spend on "booze" is less about worrying about the waste of money as worry about putting too much temptation in someones way ...do you give an alcholic the very thing that is killing him/her ?

Good point. No, if I knew for sure that that is what they were going to use it for. I think there is an unbalanced fear that's based on classism. And I think the assumption that a homeless person is an alcoholic is evidence of that. Not that anyone made that assumption here, but that is the general contention in my neck of the woods. But I think people don't worry about rich people misusing their money, and they worry to much about people who are poor/homeless misusing their money. That's my major hangup.

[Guest LadyC]

MK202002, i believe if God had been directing you to give the guy money, you would have been unable to drive on by.

however, for future reference.... if you see someone asking for handouts of cash, offer them food.

six years ago.... there was a homeless guy once on a corner i drove by. i felt God telling me to help him, but it was a busy intersection and the light was red. i continued on to the bank to deposit the last $40 we owned, which we'd counted out of loose change we'd kept tossing into a bucket. we had moved here just a few months prior, and would have been living on the street ourselves had one of my husbands friends not offered us shelter. (he'd moved from texas to vegas a couple of years earlier.) and at that point, my husband hadn't had any luck getting a job.

still, i felt God telling me to go help him. i deposited 30 bucks and kept out ten. i stopped by a convenience store and bought a packaged sandwich, a candy bar, some chips, and two large bottles of water. then i drove back through that intersection. (clarification, the intersection was at an overpass, i was on a one-way feeder road) just as i approached the light, it turned green, and i couldn't stop. but i had already slowed down, and i stuck my arm out the window holding the bag full of goodies, and as past him, he reached out and grabbed the bag.

i circled the block and came back around in time to see him draining one of the water bottles, holding the empty sandwich package in his hand.

a few days later, my husband landed a job. a decent paying job, not nearly what he makes now, but it was still pretty good. his employer didn't just hire him, but told him to go find an apartment. his employer advanced us enough to move in. of course, we had no furniture at this point, because we'd left everything behind in texas except what we could fit in our pickup and a tiny uhall trailer, and the pickup was on the verge of being reposessed.

and wouldn't you know it? the week before we moved into the apartment, his brother called. his brother is wealthy. he was quitting his career as a senior chemist at dow agro and moving to california to go to law school.... they would be drastically downsizing while he pursued a new education, and needed to get rid of some furniture and one of their vehicles.

two days after we moved in, his brother arrived, dropped off enough furniture to furnish our entire two bedroom apartment, and a 1996 ford explorer.

see what happens when we listen to God? (yet some here have accused me of not caring about the homeless because i would not support breaking laws to feed large groups in parks without the proper permit!)

a few months later we were much better off. i saw that same man walking on the sidewalk, and i pulled into the convenience store at the corner and waited. i remembered that God had once asked me to help him. i felt no such spiritual urgency at this time, just a warm fuzzy feeling. i kinda felt like i owed the guy something. when he got to where i was, i offered to take him inside and let him get something to drink and a sandwich. i waited at the counter. the guy comes back with a quart of beer.

well, i told him to take the beer back and get himself some water. he did, but he was pretty peeved about it.