Meeting the Deeper Need

Last week we had a man come into the bike shop wanting help. Problem was, he had been in several times before. He is possibly homeless, stunk to the heavens, and was trying to use the system for all it was worth. He quickly got on our nerves. He kept asking us to help him because “things were a little hard right now.” If it wasn’t us giving him something for free, and was wanting to use our tools. My coworker eventually turned him away and told him that we wouldn’t help him. If he wanted to pay like everyone else, we would be more than happy to help.

It wasn’t the fact that they guy was asking for help that annoyed and bothered us, it was how he was asking. He wasn’t sincerely interested in getting the problem with his bike fixed because he needed it, he just wanted to get from us what he could without having to work for it. This became very evident as he originally came in about a flat tire, all the while carrying on about how hard times had been for him, then once we said no to that, he moved right in to using our tools to do some work to his bike. He was unphased. He was trying to mooch. To use us to get what he needed while putting out the least amount possible.

This interaction stirs up a mixed variety of emotions. On the one hand, I was glad to get rid of him because of his annoyance. On the other, I recognize that as a Christian, I am called and commanded to love the lowly, to help those in need, and to give to those that don’t have. But at the same time, I question whether or not Jesus would want me to encourage negative behavior within another person. Yet again raising the question, "What is it to love our neighbor?" The very reason my coworker and I didn’t help him was because we knew the moment we did, he would be showing up all the time, and probably bringing several of his mooching buddies with him. No bueno on several fronts for everyone involved. The encouragement of his actions and unhealthy behaviors being top of the list.

Oh how I wrestle with this. I want so badly to help those who have need, but at the same time not encourage their behaviors that have put them in the position they are in. For the Discipleship mission trip to Alaska we read the book, “Deep Justice in a Broken World” by Chap Clark and Kara E. Powell. While I confess that I have not read the book in it’s entirety (and how I hope Ashlee Alley is not reading this! HA!), it brings up a point in loving people that lays heavily upon my heart. It is said best in a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

“On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

We as Christians are called to do more than give to the needs, but to eliminate the need in many cases. Which goes so much deeper. I understand the concept, but I confess that in the majority of instances, including last week’s incident, I know not of how to go about eliminating that need. I do not fully understand or know how to even begin going about the restructuring of the Jericho roads around me. This is definitely a topic of life that I have no answers right now, only questions.

Lord, be my light. Give me inspiration and insight into these things, that I might truly understand what it is to eliminate the REAL needs of those around me. Then give me the strength and focus to follow through with the full implementation of those things. Amen.