Una Moneda Señor?

by Glen Henton I don't know how many times I have heard that request from a child on the street in Buenos Aires. It means, "Do you have some change, Mister?" It is usually accompanied with the explanation that the money is needed to buy milk for a baby brother or sister. Very often, the request is not quite true. They may need money all right, but only to satisfy some adult who is using the children to get them money. How sad! The problem of how to help people is a complicated one. I typically (maybe you do too) agonize over how to really help. Sometimes I just don't want to be bothered by the problems of other people, maybe especially when I know that I might need to give some assistance. Other times I am just overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness of how to help them solve their financial troubles. After all, Jesus did talk about caring for those who have physical needs and the "cup of cold water" passage in Mark 9:41 is hard to ignore. Robert Lupton, a minister in the inner city in Atlanta, wrote the following in his book "Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" about our attitudes in helping those in need: "Yet I fear contagion. I fear my life will get out of control and I will be overwhelmed by the urgent affairs of others. I fear for my family. I resist the Christ who beckons his followers to lay down their lives for each other. His talk of a yoke, a cross, of bearing one another's burdens and giving one's self away is not attractive to me. The implication of entering this world of suffering as a 'Christ-one,' as yeast absorbed into the loaf of human need, are as terrifying as death itself. Yet this is the only way to life. The question is, will I choose life?" (p. 30) It is still very hard to know when to help and when to refrain. To one person who asks, I decide not to. Then for the next I reach in my pocket and find something to give. Why one and not the other? Why do I give to either? Why don't I give to both? Of course, there are limits to what any one person can do. Two questions come to mind: (1) Are my limits God's limits? and (2) Am I doing it out of love and concern or out of pure guilt? "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love . . ." (1 Corinthians 13:3) Lord, help me to care enough for others to struggle to do right and open up my heart to give in the same way you have given your only Son for me.