When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He answered with this in Matthew 22:37-39: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I read this and think to myself “okay, I do my best to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I fail in some way, shape, or form daily but I am still giving it my all. But it is hard to love my neighbor as myself.”
And so I read what the Word says in Luke 10:30-37: 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Among the tidal wave of things that I am experiencing here in Bangkok, there is one that I keep having small encounters with and I think about them everyday. I see, in some way, shape, or form, someone on the side of the street begging. Now, it’s not so much like America where someone walks up to you on the street and tells you some story about how they got to this point in their life and then hits you up for some money for “food”. It’s also not like the man who was blunt with me back in Nashville who plainly told me that he wanted my money to buy beer so he could satisfy his addiction. Unlike those I just mentioned, the people I see are always sitting on the ground and at least 50% of them have a baby in their arms or sleeping on a blanket. Some of them are people with diseases.
Most people walk around them, while some either put money in the cup they are holding or have their child go do it. Every single time I see this, I think to myself “what should I do? I obviously can’t give to every person I see like this. I can give to this person, but I want to more than give them a few baht. I want to help them with their situation.” By the time I have thought all of that I have passed by an not given them anything. I know they haven’t been beaten and stripped of their clothes, but still I walk away feeling like the priest and the Levite.
I think I should give them some baht, and I will. But I don’t want to end there. Just giving them some money seems a whole lot like a religious deed. “Give them money and not concern yourself with the state of their soul… check”? That might be an exaggeration (though, it may not be as well) but that is was it can quickly become. Just like the people who go on mission trips to third world countries and throw candy out the window to only see children swarm and snatch it up like animals. This does nothing for the state of their soul! I want to show love and share Jesus, and that is much more than giving a few bucks here and there. I just hope, when the time comes, I truly do LOVE them.
