Sermons, Parks and Beggers

Well today...

Sitting around at the beginning. I tried to work on my "sermon" (I hate calling them sermons, they sound to formal, and like they'll be full of my wisdom or something) but it's not coming together. I'll have to wait for God's inspiration on this one. Seeing as it's the last time I'm at my old church, I want to say thank you and show the people how much I love 'em. And I want to encourage people to work hard for Christ. I have no idea how I'll go about that, or if I will at all. I'll have to see how God leads.

Perhaps I will stick it on my blog when I'm done. I probably won't though.

After sitting around I went out to go see a film with some of the people from Mission. We were meeting at Town Hall steps at 5:30 so I went in early and sat under a tree in Hyde Park and read my book. That was marvellous. I often forget how nice it is to sit in a park in the middle of the city and read.

It's nice to read anywhere, and particularly nice to read in a park. But a park in the city, in my opinion, is the best. I think it's something about having somewhere quiet, somewhere natural, somewhere where you can fall asleep, in the middle of all the buildings, people and noise. The contrast of what goes on around the park makes the park all the nicer.

So that's what I did.

When I made it to Town Hall steps we were met by a dude asking for money. I'm always bad in those situations. I know how I feel about it ethically, but I never get around to doing it. Clare, forunately, decided to give the man some money, which gave me the courage to do also.

I am often tempted to say I won't give people money because I figure they'll go and spend it on drugs. And perhaps they will, but I figure that's not our decision to make. The Bible says we should give to anyone who asks and I figure that means anyone. By not giving someone money when they ask because we figure that they'll spend it on drugs is judging them. And judging them purely by their appearance. And I think that's wrong. I think we should trust them because love trusts. If they spend their money on drugs that's their choice not ours and I don't think we have the right to make that choice for them.

But that said, I don't believe in supporting a drug habbit either. I don't think we should hold on to our money when asked for it out of fear or greed. But if we hold onto it out of genuine love and respect for the person who is asking then, we have a whole other ball game. In that case we need to go beyond giving the person our money, but giving them what's needed. And that is more than buying them a meal because you think they might be lying to you when they ask for money.

Really I don't know how to handle people on the street who ask me for money. I rarely have the courage to give the person what they ask for so I think I'd need a whole lot more courage to give them what they need.