A Bible verse about doing good:
“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.” Proverbs 3:27
I genuinely believe in the goodness of humanity. I think if a situation presented to most of us with an opportunity to good to one who deserves it, we would react accordingly.
The problem is that people don’t wear signs indicating their deservedness. That’s left to the Almighty to decide.
For you and me, it would behoove us to assume that everyone is deserving and to act accordingly.
I think about verses like this often when I’m at work. We encounter people in their worst: worst conditions, worst state of mind, worst cases of health, etc.
It’s easy to become apathetic to the “system” of continual abuse. It’s much harder to remember that these individuals are, perhaps, even more deserving of good deeds than I am.
Let me be clear:
I am not condoning the situations that people put themselves in. They should bear the burden of their decisions, and consequences are real.
That being said, a person’s circumstances do not make them less deserving of goodness. In all actuality, it’s probable that they’re even more deserving.
The low-hanging fruit example that I can think of is the current epidemic of homelessness. Our community has not been exempt from this issue. It’s not really the point of this topic, but it provides a good analogy.
A lot of people consider giving money to people panhandling. It’s such a simple thing, and yet the ramifications are so much deeper.
On the simplest level, an individual is asking for help. We all need money to provide for basic life necessities, and for whatever reason, this person is lacking.
The cause, in this case, is not the issue. In the simplest terms, someone is asking for help. How do we respond? Do we hand them some cash; empty out the change cup; or look away and try not to make eye contact?
The answer that you choose does not indicate whether you’ve betrayed this individual. Like I said, the depth of this analogy is broad.
It’s simple to associate homelessness with drug and/or alcohol abuse, but is that a symptom or the cause?
It’s easy to say, “I don’t want to give this person money just so they can buy some booze with it.” I can empathize with that line of thinking.
Here’s the kicker:
Nowhere in that verse does it say that we have to give money in order to do good. In fact, since money is “the root of all evil,” perhaps that’s the last thing we should be offering.
Let me provide a proposition:
The next time you encounter a homeless individual, instead of handing them some money and driving away, ask them what they really need.
Perhaps you can buy some groceries or a meal for them to eat. Maybe you can donate a hat or gloves that you’ve had sitting in your car for years. Or maybe they really just need someone to sit and talk to them.
Doing good has nothing to do with giving money.
I try to remind myself of this at work; I can’t go around giving away money freely, but I certainly can treat all of my patients like human beings deserving of compassion and goodness.
In this regard, I have one more analogy to provide, and it again relates to my line of work.
I can’t tell you how many times we get dispatched to a call for someone who “looks like they need help,” or someone overdosing, or even someone in cardiac arrest. They very next sentence provided by the dispatcher is, “The reporting party doesn’t want to help.”
Someone is literally dying. You have the decency to call 911, but you can’t stop? Someone is passed out on the street, and you think they should be checked on. But not by you; no, someone else should go check on them. Seriously?
Is that where we’re at as a society?
Remember this verse the next time you can do good for someone. You don’t know if they deserve it or not, so you may as well assume that they do. And for goodness sakes, if you think someone needs help, HELP THEM.
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