By Ben Disney
Carl (not his real name) is someone the church has been helping for a while now. He’s homeless and has a long and painful litany of difficulties and challenges, including the recent death of his mother, a diagnosis of cancer, and a myriad of problems that have left him alone, isolated, and broke. If you’ve ever dealt with people who are in that kind of a situation, you probably experience a variety of emotions. On the one hand your heart breaks for anyone who is in such obvious pain and distress to the degree that they don’t know how they’re going to make it from one day to the next. On the other hand, you marvel at the resiliency and resourcefulness some people have to endure enormous challenges and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles just to survive.
Ask anyone who has worked with people like Carl and there’s also a healthy sense of initial skepticism that often emerges when you first hear their story. How do you know if the need is genuine or if you’re being scammed by someone who knows how to play the game? How can you separate the con artists from the true victims who genuinely need help and assistance? How do you decide who deserves help and who doesn’t?
The cynical answer is, “Don’t help any of them.” But most of us want to help others if we can and if we know the need is genuine. So how do we know? How do I know if Carl is telling the truth? How do I know if he’s not just playing me for everything he can get? Background checks, asking the right questions, and verifying information can be helpful, but it’s not foolproof. We’ve all been the victim of someone who sold us a story, told us a lie, cheated us out of money, and took advantage of our willingness to help. When you get burned, it’s hard not to vow never to put yourself in that position again.
So why help someone like Carl? There’s a good chance we might get burned. But ultimately, it may not be about Carl as much as it is about me and you. Carl’s battles are obvious; ours are far more subtle. Carl is struggling to find a roof over his head. The rest of us are trying to find an open door to our hearts. We know who Carl is; whether or not we’re even willing to help is an indication of who we are.
We forget sometimes. We’ve made the decision to follow someone who loved deeply and was hated in return; one who offered forgiveness even to those who rejected him completely, one who came in the name of peace to a world filled with violence and hatred and ended up dead. Like I said, it’s not about Carl. It’s about you and me. We didn’t decide to help Carl when he asked for assistance. We made that decision a long time ago, when we first said yes to Jesus.
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