30/10/2014

Good morning. I wish I knew what to do about beggars!

You would think it was easy…just give them some money and go on your way, your humanity expressed and your conscience clear.

But there are so many of them – grey-faced young men mostly, though sometimes young girls…. who look pretty hard up…defeated.

So, the obvious thing is to give them some money… you might think!

Maybe like me, you have a problem with the reality that, if you do that…

you can be pretty sure that when you come back next week,

they will still be there…grubby, thin-faced and ill-looking –

and seemingly no further down the road towards a better life,

a more hopeful life than they were last week, when you gave them some money.

And, try as you might to let compassion be the natural expression of your fundamental humanity – perhaps, like me, you find yourself wondering why they haven’t found some better way to deal with their crisis, than to crouch in the cold outside Waverley Station.

And you might find it hard not to hearken to the cynical voices that insist that “Any money you give, will almost certainly be used to fund their addiction.”

And so the debate swings from compassion, to tough love – and the caring citizen swithers and agonises…

One thing is sure. Whoever the beggar is, and from wherever they come… they are some mother’s son or daughter. And that’s what makes it so hard, so heart-wrenching;

And what is the right response?

The hard liners who give them nothing, as a point of principle? The ones who sometimes do, and sometimes don’t, and live with the emotional anguish of walking by a beggar’s outstretched hand? Anyone who thinks it’s simple isn’t living inside my skin!

Lord, is it really you?

With the scraggy dog and the look of defeat?

What must I do?

Help me, Lord. Amen.