"Give to Everyone Who Asks of You"

He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor
Will also cry himself and not be answered.
Proverbs 21:13

Give to everyone who asks of you…
Luke 6:30

In November of 2004, I was blessed beyond measure to travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico to attend the annual RZIM Founders’ Conference with a friend who supports that ministry. On our free morning, we decided to take a taxi downtown to the historic district for breakfast and some shopping. We wanted to find a local café rather than McDonald’s or the like, so we walked for a little while before we found a busy hangout. We chose pastries from the window display and ordered café con leche to go intending to find a park bench so we could people watch while we ate.

We had barely stepped out of the door of the café when we were approached by a young man who asked us to buy him something to eat. He pointed to the pastries in the window and looked at me expectantly. I can’t remember what I said to him, but I refused him, walked quickly down the street, and dashed into a drug store because I needed to buy a toothbrush.

I immediately turned to my friend and expressed dismay at what I had done. She said that she thought he looked genuinely hungry, so we decided to go back out onto the street and look for him, give him our breakfasts, and then go back and buy something else for ourselves. Unfortunately, we didn’t find him. However, we did stop and pray for him—that someone else would be used by God to meet his needs.

I was haunted throughout the day with the image of that hungry young man. In fact, when I couldn’t even put the thoughts from my mind during a wonderful presentation by Beth Moore, I knew I was being hounded by the enemy. Since I couldn’t speak out loud, I wrote on my note pad: THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS (Romans 8:1).

I cannot adequately describe the way I felt. I don’t think it would be going too far to say that I was sick at my stomach for what I had done, and I determined never to let it happen again. Jesus makes the standard very clear in Luke 6:30 when he says, “Give to everyone who asks you…” There are no qualifiers here. He doesn’t say that we have to be sure the person’s not a swindler or that they won’t use the money to buy alcohol or drugs. The burden to act is placed upon us, and God will be the judge.

It was almost a year before God gave me the opportunity to make up for that day. Our family was on a trip and we stopped for coffee. My husband went in and left the children and me in the car. An elderly black man approached the driver’s side window, which I appreciated because I didn’t feel threatened. He told me he was a Hurricane Katrina victim from New Orleans and that he needed a dollar for bus fare to get back downtown to the Salvation Army. I joke all the time about being a banker’s wife and never having any cash, but that day, as always, God was in control. I handed the man a five dollar bill and watched as he went into Mc Donald’s before catching his bus. Thanks be to the God of second chances.