Good morning, friends.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 3:3, “Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms.”
You’ve no doubt pulled up to an intersection and seen the man or woman standing there with the cardboard sign, asking for a handout from those waiting for the light to turn green. You’ve probably been pumping gas and had someone approach you with a tale of needing some money to get him and his family home on the bus. Or you may have been returning to your car in the parking lot of a store and had a stranger offer to unload your cart and then ask for some money. If the needy catches you at a time when you’re feeling sympathetic and compassionate and you give them some money, you may also then wonder just how difficult it was for that person to begin to walk up to total strangers and ask them for money. If you’re feeling slightly less compassionate, you may wonder how they always seem to find you and hit you up for some spare change or a dollar. Or maybe your sympathy is shrouded in skepticism and you wonder to yourself, and everyone else in your car, just how needy the person really is. It can become an irritant to expect that every time you sit at a particular stop light or visit a particular store, you are going to have to fend off a beggar seeking something from you, especially if you suspect the individual is far from needy, but rather more inclined to beg and too lazy to work.
I imagine those that do the asking at their chosen spots pick the locations for some reason or another. There must be some thought behind why the same traffic lights and store fronts tend to have people there asking for help. And I guess there’s also a reason that none of them roam our church parking lots or wait outside the worship center doors to ask the churchgoers for money. I guess it could have to do with laws and statutes, but it might have to do with something deeper. Deeper in the beggar, and perhaps deeper in the churchgoer. How many Sundays would it take for you to choose a different door or skip attending altogether if your new Sunday routine now included having to address someone in need of a handout just outside your church? And if they asked of you, what would you give?
As we seek Him today, give thanks for all that has been given to you that you never could have asked for.
Have a grateful Monday.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
