HMHY

I was going into the ATT office this morning and a young man stopped me and asked me for money. He had a story that sounded pretty good and was clean-cut and respectful (but of course the Devil can wear those attributes as well). I told him that I didn’t routinely give out money but if he wanted to I would pay him to work. Of course I couldn’t think of what work that might be at the time but I told him to wait around and after I concluded my business at ATT I would talk to him some more.

When I finished at ATT, I hoped he would be gone but nope there he was waiting on me. In the meantime I had thought of two jobs he could do… a hard one and an easy one. So I sprung the hard one on him and told him I had some brush that needed to be cleared and I would pay him $10/hour and could give him 3-4 hours work (Actually it was on the neighbors vacant land). I asked him why he didn’t have a job and if he had a drug or alcohol problem. He thought about the job and said he really needed $60-70 and could I give him a ride to Violet and Hwy 37 and he offered to ride in the back of my truck. I let him ride in the front and along the way he asked why I questioned him about a drug/alcohol problem. I told him because the reason most people aren’t working is because of some underlying problem and usually that is drug/alcohol related (laziness is a factor as well but I didn’t offer that). I then told him that I can usually find someone a job if I see something in them… like trying to work on sin in their lives. I told him that I teach a Bible class every Sunday morning at 9:30 am and gave him a church business card. He took it and thanked me.

I share this because when we choose to help someone we can offer a much greater gift than simply forking over some money. Believe me that would be easy for me to do and I wouldn’t miss the $20 or so that it would cost me to get rid of him. Instead, I offered to pay him for work. I gave him a ride up front (I wasn’t afraid of him). I expressed a level of concern for him and offered to help him with his physical needs if he would first address his spiritual needs, i.e. making peace with God though living righteously. That is a gift worth a lot more than $20. We’ll see what happens.