Beggars + Christ + Me

The other week, I witnessed one of the most heart-wrenching, enlightening and moving experiences of my life...

The woman is probably in her mid-sixties, gray-haired. On her feet she wears shoes five sizes too big for her--too big for me as well. Her socks held up by a little piece of string tied around her calves. Her saree is dilapidated and a little small. She wears two jackets and covers her head with a rough looking shawl. To help her walk, she uses a walking stick about three and a half feet tall. Whenever someone passes her, she lowers her right hand from her head to her waist while making a supplicatory sound (something like "aaaahn").

Every now and then, her supplications are met with one or two rupee coins, but most often she is ignored completely. Even by me. At the time, I was sitting outside of a bakery, waiting for it to open so I could buy some bread and a cinnamon roll. I was very moved as I watched her. She would stand and beg for a while and then sit down and rest--slipping into nothingness. I was very reflective as I sat on that bench...asking myself questions. Questions like what my response to her need should be as a fellow human being? As a Christian? How can I meet her needs? A passage in James 2 came to my mind:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James 2:14-17

How do I do that as a visitor? I don't want to excuse myself from her need just by claiming that I am a visitor, but I also don't know how to be Christ to her. Let's face it, I'm only here two more weeks and then I will be gone. How do I not just say "go in peace, be warmed and filled?" I feel like the two rupees I gave her is just that--token love and care that amounts to nothing.

I'm still working out what my response towards her is going to be, but God has already expanded my heart to include love for her and beggers. This is a huge blessing because up until this point I had felt ambivalent towards all the people that I had met here in India. God has used this beggar woman to move my heart to love and dream about how I can help beggars in the future...to pray for them...to think of ways to actually meet a need (warm socks or a coat?)...I want to treat her and other beggars like people made in God's image. Not as though they don't exist. I would love to get an interpreter and ask this lady about her life...how she ended up as a beggar...what she did before...her hopes...fears...joys.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:35

I want to share the bread of life with her so that her spirit will not hunger or thirst, and I want to help meet her physical hungers and thirsts. Dreams come to my heart as I look at her and think about what God might put me to work at in the future. Please pray for me in this respect and especially for all the beggars and people with huge needs. And lest you trivialize the needs of beggars and naively think that they are really just crooks trying to "cheat hardworking people of their rightful wages," remember that they are people created in God's image and that Jesus calls us to love our enemies. In the past, I have ignorantly thought that. I am sure that there are some beggars that would fit that bill, but I no longer believe that is the majority. I'm not saying that throwing money at them is the solution because I don't think it is. Rather, I think we need to go and love them where they are. To encourage them. To treat them like people worthy of our concern. To teach them how to live apart from beggary. To invite them home and give them a meal. To give them rides in our cars. Something.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:16-18

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:7-12

They may not all be brothers or sisters in Christ, but how do we know whether or not it is God's will for them to become brothers or sisters in the future? We don't. We only know to love them. I feel like a child when I write this because I fail, miserably. Let's pray for God to give us faith and grace to press on towards the goal (i.e. Christ's perfection). Let's ask God to expand our hearts and dreams in ways that show his exceeding glory by loving one another. If we love one another, God abides in us (even though no one has ever seen Him), and his love will be perfected in us.

Forgive me for my long windedness...this is something that God has put on my heart and I'm trying to figure it all out. If you think about it, please pray that I would have wisdom to know how to proceed. Please pray for faith, patience, and contentment.

I love all of you and miss you a lot. I pray for all of you from time to time as you come to my mind and heart. I wish you all the best in your pursuits. I wish and pray joy for you that will not leave you at the end.

One more blessing that I pray for myself and for you...

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13