Not mine…
December 19th, 2005
If you give somebody money, let's say somebody who is homeless. Once you have given the money to them, its not yours anymore.
Why do we have such hangups on not giving a beggar money because of what they might go do with it. I came to the conclusion this weekend that once you give, and even before you give, as soon as you commit to give it to somebody, you can no longer dictate where that money will go to. But you can be prayerful with the gift to them, that God will let them use it how He would have them, not how I would have them use it.
We don't know most of the people who ask us for money, so how are we to know what they should use it for?
We aren't to know what they should use it for. We give because something within us tells us to give.
About a month ago I stopped by Starbucks to purchase a bag of coffee beans. As I was walking to my vehicle parked in the ramp, a man approached me, apologized right away for bothering me and then proceeded to tell me a story about how his car wouldn't start and he needed 8 dollars for a cab to get back to Prior Lake. He wanted to know if I could loan him the 8 dollars and he would find a way to pay me back.
I looked inside of my server book that I carry around constantly to see what kinds of bills I had. All I had was a 20 dollar bill. I took it out of my server book and handed it to the man. He said thank-you, and then asked if he could get my address to pay me back. I told him that it was not necessary for him to pay me back, all that I asked was that he please do something for someone else in return. Afterall, it was only money.
I have no idea what this man used the 20 dollars for. Maybe he didn't even need money for a cabride. Who knows.