What do you do?

Gas stations always seem like the place to run a con in movies and on tv and admittedly, I often get hit up there as well.

In fact, I would say that gas stations and my local CVS are the two places I most often get asked for money.

Normally, in the past, I always said no. I had a friend when I was in high school who would actually pick people up who had the will-work-for-food signs and take them to her house to do work. She never really had any successful experiences with it, as they would often disappear or fabricate an excuse as to why couldn't help in her yard. So the seeds were sown that these people weren't seriously in need.

I had another experience working with the homeless in Atlanta. We prepared bags of food and took them to the streets, passing them out to the homeless. It wasn't much you know, some rice and sausage, a packet of cookies. Shadowing those with more experience, I watched when some would ask for more food. "For a friend," he said. My initial reaction was..."no way!" But the guy I was with, chuckled and said, "A friend, huh?" and gave him another bag.

There's a verse I've struggled to understand all my life. It seems so hard and it flies against all logic and reason.

This verse rattled around inside my brain when I said no to the guy at CVS who wanted to wash my car windows for some change. I was in a hurry to go grab my lunch and didn't want to take the time. He's asked me for money before, but at least this time he was even willing to do some work for it! As I drove away, I felt seared by the words in this verse.

This same verse popped up immediately Friday night when I stopped for gas, and a woman approached me. She claimed she was bleeding, though I couldn't see any blood and had just escaped from her abusive alcoholic husband, but needed some gas. I didn't believe her. But those words...those words were pounding in my head.

They come from Matthew: Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
So I bought her ten dollars worth of gas. Was it a con? Yes, but I knew that going in. I especially knew it when a man walked by with a gas can as I was filling up my own car and pointed to the car and asked for some help to buy gas. (was he the alcoholic abusive husband?) Even though they lied to get some gas, I don't know what was really going on in their lives. I don't know God's purpose for our lives intersecting that night, or for the sense I had that I needed to obey and give them money against my better judgement.

Could I have given that ten dollars to an organization that would have used it more wisely, like Compassion? Perhaps, but in truth I might have ended up spending it on Diet Mountain Dew or something.

I'd love to know what you all think about this verse, how you apply it to your life and what you do in these situations. I think it's worth talking about and I'm hoping to get a little discussion.