The greatest temptation we as Christians face is to do nothing at all. For every good thing I do, now there are ten that I don't. And, The Good That I Do is weighed against how much hell I am sure to catch for doing it. All of which makes me wonder how much other good is not being done, how many other people have thrown their hands up and said, “Not worth the hell.”
I've got a friend who used to call me Bruce Willis.
He called me that, because, at every opportunity that someone
needed help or seemed to be having any difficulty at all, I'd go
leaping into action, usually uninvited, sticking my nose in and
offering my help and opinions. I had a hard time saying no and
gave tirelessly, day after day, of my energy and resources to
be, I guess, a super-hero. To save the day. And, I explained to
him, my rationale for doing so was the scripture found in the
fourth chapter of the book of James. My friend said yes, he
understood that, but there needs to be practical limits and
wisdom applied to every given situation. Yesterday some guy came
up to me and asked me for help. He didn't want help, he wanted
money. My instinct was to just give it to him, after all this
could be an angel in disguise. But then the guy ran his con a
bit too far, and I realized it was a con. Actually, I knew it
was a con from the very beginning, but I'm sure angels run cons
every day (heck, I saw Family Man). I might have given him a
couple bucks merely for the sheer entertainment value of the
scam, a standard Trying To Get Home sob story about needing bus
fare to Aurora because his car broke down on the highway.
Only, he was standing in a shopping center some miles from the
nearest highway and, had he been trying to get to Aurora he
could have/would have remained on the highway, rather than allow
some good Samaritan to drive him five miles away from it,
leaving him stranded in a shopping center. Even so, I'm
thinking, the guy put some effort into the script, and for a
moment I wavered on whether or not to give this guy a couple
bucks, knowing it was going for booze or dope. So I thought to
pray with the guy or drive him to a shelter but then I thought
this is a pathological, professional liar, and likely not
someone I should be alone with or certainly driving around. Then
the guy added onto his story that he was in a hurry to get to
Aurora because his daughter has Leukemia and he's trying to get
to the hospital. See, here's where he just insulted my
intelligence, and I got angry. I started to scream at this guy
and threaten to call the cops, but instead I just dropped my
head and wondered do I really look that gullible? I counted to
three and quietly told the guy no, and left before I started
screaming at him.
Then I felt guilty all day because I didn't do what I really
should have. I didn't reach out to the guy, not in ignorance but
in love. At the very least I didn't attempt to infect his
conscience. I just wanted to get away from the guy, from this
hideous person insulting me, saying “You look like a pigeon.”
And, in my anger, I really wasn't able to be much help to him
or, frankly, of much use to God.
Bruce Willis had left the building.
CONTINUED
