Am I Giving or Getting Taken?

"Open Hands" by Patricia Awapara from fineartamerica.com

Yesterday a woman asked me for money in McDonald’s.

Well, actually it was a lot longer conversation than that, involving he fact that her car was out of gas, she was from out of town, and her ex-husband was threatening her. But the point of the story was that she needed money to fill up her car and get home.

I had no way of knowing if any of this was true, of course. You always hear about people getting conned with sob stories like this, don’t you? I don't want to "get taken."

This is something I’ve had trouble with in the past: How do you know the guy on the street corner with the cardboard sign really is hungry, or if he’ll just take your dollar and use it to buy drugs? I used to wrestle with this idea a lot. If I give the guy a dollar, am I contributing to his dependency? What is the right thing to do?

And there was a harder question to answer as well: Was I just using this whole thing as an excuse because I'd rather just keep my money?

One day I received a clear message from the Bible on the subject.

“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1st John 3:17-18)

This really hit home for me, because I felt like whenever I did NOT give to someone who claimed to be in need, I had to shut up my heart, to steel myself and say, “No, because he won’t really buy food with the money. He‘s not REALLY in need.”

But God doesn’t command us to give to those who deserve our help, or those who behave properly. In fact, Jesus Himself said:

“Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:42)

And He doesn’t require us to be responsible for what others do. In Ezekiel 33 God makes it clear that the prophet’s responsibility is simply to be obedient to what God has commanded HIM to do, and not worry about what the other person does after that.

In short, it didn’t MATTER if this woman was telling me the truth or not about her need. When I felt a tug on my heart to give to her, I was required to obey God’s command and simply give.

It wasn’t about her and her need for money at all. It was about me and my need to learn generosity.

Now I understand that it’s not always practical to go around giving money away. I would run out of it pretty quickly that way.

But I have to remember to cultivate and attitude of generosity and obedience. And when I feel God is telling me to give, I should give with an open hand, and not shut up my heart.