I had stopped in Nashville, that day, to get gas for the car, as I do often since I travel for my fulltime job. A gentleman approached me, and I knew right away he was going to ask for money. This scenario happens quite often. They are down on their luck, they need gas to go see a sick relative, their car broke down, and other situations that may tug at your heart. Normally, I will listen to their story and then politely decline to help. I do not “trust” the honesty of their story. I wonder how they will spend the money that I could give them.
Why do we hesitate to make a decision to help? What drives us to give or not to give? Are we worried that we would give them money and it will feed their alcoholism or drug addiction? Sometimes our fear of doing the wrong thing stops us from doing anything, which precludes us from serving anyone at all. Is this how God wants us to serve others? On their terms, not ours? Mark 9:35 says Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
I understand the concept of servant leadership and have written about that many times over the years. There are programs set up to serve others. The food pantry at my church is one of these. We do not think twice about helping serve in that capacity, or to give our money to that cause. But when approached on the street, we are either frozen in our tracks on what to do, or we quickly decline giving money. I do not have an answer to how you should handle each situation. You will have to let God guide your actions.
I remember a friend telling me he saw a man standing at the exit ramp of the highway years ago with a sign saying, “Will work for food”. Since my friend was a contractor and had work to offer, he offered him a job for the day and told him how much he would pay him. The man turned him down saying he could make more money holding the sign on the side of the street than he could by going to work for my friend. I think about that story often when I see someone pleading for help at the exit ramps.
Now back to the gas station and the man approaching me. He said he had just gotten out of prison, had no money, and was too far away from the community shelter where he could get a free meal. Could I possibly help him out, he was hungry? That day, it did not take me any time at all to make the decision to ask him to go inside the convenience store and get whatever he would like to eat. I would buy him lunch. He felt bad even asking me for help and did not want to take advantage of my generosity. He said he would just get a hot dog and would be fine with that. I convinced him to get two plus a drink. I also offered to buy him other food to keep with him for later that day. He took me up on the two hot dogs and the drink. He did not want anything else. He was extremely grateful and told me that I was the first person to not be scared to even talk to him when he approached them. He thanked me so many times before I left. It cost me less than $5.00 to serve him that day.
We need to be aware of how God wants us to serve others throughout each day. It is not always on our terms. It needs to be on His terms. I pray you are blessed and can be a blessing to others.
