Want to fire up an argument? Get a debate going about the right Christian response to panhandlers. The disagreements are sharper than cheddar. I don’t have the right answer, but I do want to share this resource for Columbus dwellers that the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless updates every so often.
In the summer of 1981, a car accident crippled a young man named Greg Roth. It handicapped his legs and disabled his body. But there’s more. The damage wasn’t only in flesh and blood.
If you are like me, by nature you are self-interested. And when difficult people come around, your self-interest meters spike. That means in order to be others-centered, you will have to do the unnatural. You will have to bless people who can’t return favors, who take but don’t return love, who step in disharmony with you, or who make your skin crawl. How will you find the power to love like this? By remembering your place. Consider this. The contempt you harbor for the most difficult person in your life can not amount to the contempt God should have held against you and didn’t.
It don’t matter where you live. It don’t matter where you came from. We’re all the same. Some’s rich. Some’s poor. And some’s right in the middle. Well, I’m one of the ones that didn’t come rich, and you know what, I’m going to make it some day. – Shirley