A man walks up to you on the street. He's clearly seen better days. He asks you if you've got money cause he's hungry. Do you... A) Give him the money, no questions asked. B) Take him somewhere to get a meal. C) Pat your pockets, mumble something about not having any money, and walk past him. D) Ignore him.
Now, let's be honest here... Sure, we'd all like to answer A or B to every single guy that walks up to you on the street, but I'm guessing that the vast majority of the time we actually answer C or D. Does this make us bad people?
Actually, that's not the question I want to answer, and its not the blog I want to write. You see, the short answer should be that we answer A every single time - without thought or question. Lord, when did we see you hungry and on the streets and refuse to buy you food? But that's a guilt trip that none of us want to consider. And yet, consider it we do. In that split second of time before we roll off one of four answers, our minds run through an entire gamut of questions. Who is this guy? Why is he hungry? Is he a drug dealer? Will he harm me? How much money do I have? Should I even take out my wallet? What's the right thing to do? Am I being a bad person? Will I be a good person if I give him money? Do I have time for this?
If you read my last blog post you may recognize this pattern of behavior. In my writer's mind this is what I call looking for the perfect answer to the situation. And yet, whether its a homeless guy on the street asking me for a sandwich or a potential girlfriend standing in front of me and I'm contemplating asking her out, the endless amount of questioning all point to the same set of insecurities.
The only thing human beings really want in life is to be loved unconditionally. Since we are all gravely disappointed in this desire, we form neurosies about love, connection, and trust. We know that humans being human means that there is nobody on this planet that will ever love us unconditionally. As a result, our minds put up barriers and tests and all sorts of flotsam and jetsam that prevent us from ever loving anyone else unconditionally as well.
BUT, that doesn't mean that unconditional love doesn't exist. God has unconditional love for us. So much love, in fact, that He sent His only begotten son, Jesus Christ to us and then allowed us to kill him.
Apparently, human beings can be counted on to kill those things that threaten us with the one thing we most desire. I've seen it play out again and again and again. The more someone loves and trusts someone else, the more they try to sabotage that relationship in some sort of misguided attempt at proving that their love is unconditional.
Anyway, God loves us unconditionally. When we desire unconditional love, we desire God. That's it. That's the only place you're ever going to get it. God IS Love. LOVE is God. Quite frankly, its hard enough to believe in God, let alone believe in the idea that God has unconditional love for us - but that's because we're human and, because we're human, we have this misguided desire to prove that God's love is unconditional.
What the correct answer to the first question asked is - and this is going to be hard to wrap your noodle around - that this is not a question. At heart you know that God desires you to love your neighbors as yourself. If you were hungry, you'd get something to eat. If you saw a guy that was hungry, therefore, you should get him something to eat. No questions need to be asked. You'd just do it as easily as you breath, or think, or speak. Because you'd be so in sync with God's love that you wouldn't have any questions to ask. Your faith, then, would be spontaneous... ingrained... part of you in such a way that thought becomes deed at the same moment.
Abraham, perhaps the greatest of humans when it comes to faith, was asked to drop everything and move to another country. He didn't bat an eye. Okay, he said, and he started to pack.
Me? It'd take me six months just to plan the trip. And then another year or two to raise money to go. And then finally, I'd pack up, send out change of address cards, attend several farewell parties, give a few speeches on the importance of my journey, blog about it a zillion times, make sure my camera was charged... before I finally took one step out in faith.
Sorry for the rambling... but this post was anything but spontaneous. I've been thinking about it for a while... perhaps a while too long.
3 comments:
BAM! You nailed it. And conviction strikes me, because let's face it, I do C or D most days walking in downtown San Francisco.
And am I really willing to have faith like those in Hebrews 11? Yes, I would...but my actions unfortunately don't reflect that. I would like to think, though, that while Scripture shows Abram packing up to move, he still struggled with wrapping his head around the idea of picking up and moving.
Ultimately God moves AFTER we move in faith. The blessing doesn't come if we're sitting still; the blessing comes AFTER we've taken the 1st step.
My mother use to give money to anybody on the street who asked her. She was so spontaneous. I was not pleased at the time. She did not have a lot of money. But my Mom was surely blessed.
I dealt with this question here. Consequently, I gravitate to "A," but I wonder whether that's enough. Sometimes, I think I'm merely attempting to purchase spiritual brownie points, instead of truly dealing with someone's needs.
Tough questions during one's daily walk.
Cheers.
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