Last week, a homeless man under the bridge relayed a story about a local Christian person handing out tents and sleeping bags to "anyone." I think I know what the tent and sleeping bag giving person was doing. Like me, he probably was just trying to be a different person, one who would give freely with no questions asked. A noble spiritual formation goal.
A crack dealer finally went to the tent/sleeping bag giving person to tell him/her that many of the tents and bags were being sold for a fraction of their worth and the money was being used to buy crack.
A soul started a noble journey alone with out a guide. He needed some feedback from someone that could sense the Wind. I guess none of Jesus' followers were paying attention. No problem. The Spirit moves, undeterred, like the wind looking for an attentive and willing soul to establish a beachhead for the kingdom. Someone was paying attention. He was an unlikely character. He had tapped into the goodness and obeyed. He must of been a crack dealer, you know, the man with the love grass in his hands, rather than a pusher (who is not a natural man, GD). Just like the Wind, impartial about who carries out the work of the kingdom, they just need to be attentive and willing.
The Wind used a crack dealer to direct the tent/sleeping bag giver, and a homeless man to direct me to not be so naive. First do not harm. Let's not pursue our own spiritual formation at the expense of some poor addict. Part of what we need to learn is how to really help. Helping is a means to spiritual formation. Let's not let spiritual formation get in the way of helping.
Thanks homeless man. Thanks dealer. You did the right thing. Maybe someday we can recline at table and smoke some of that love grass in your hand.
3 comments:
Qualifications on this post:
1. My pastor told me my blog was too mundane and needed to spruce it up
2. Hyperbole and methaphor are rhetorical devices, as frustrating as they can be for some
3. I dated myself with the Steppenwolf reference
4. I wonder if the sight of me smoking a doobie with a dealer conjures up thoughts similar to the ones that some had when they saw Jesus using the drug of choice in his day with sinners
5. I would not inhale. And I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
The Wind. I like it.
What do you think the answer(s) is/are, though? A fraction, big or small, will always abuse the system, no matter how benevolent the system. What determines how big that fraction is allowed to be before the system is retired or put on hold? How many people have to be helped by something to account for the abuse of that thing?
I know this wasn't the point of the post, and I do appreciate the point. But the phrase "First do no harm" makes me feel funny, because it implies that we humans always know the difference between harm and help, and I'm just not sure that we've established that as fact.
I guess I am making the point I belabored in the misguided effort? series. There are people who need and would benefit from tents and sleeping bags. There are also those who will take them and sell them. If helping those that need one were the primary concern, than your efforts would include doing what needs to be done to find them, such as visiting the camps and getting to know the people to find out their needs, or at the very least, giving the tents and sleeping bags to someone that is already doing that, who knows who needs one.
Just giving them out is more about the person giving them out than it is about helping. It is also lazy and selfish. Someone need to correct that person, which is what the dealer apparently did.
I do understand that the goats do mingle with the sheep. It goes with the territory. I am talking about a fundamental shift in attitude and orientation, an exceptional one.
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