When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her.

It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. Mother Teresa

I've learned something about giving.
My ex-boss whose also my friend whom I worked with throughout my college life said that she would never gave a beggar money. She said it would encourage them to be lazy.

Over the years living in downtown, I've learned that some people tend to lie to get what they want. I've never gave anyone money because I knew (how did I know?) that it will be used to buy drugs or beer. Some people we saw around the stadium even said with a cardboard Why lie? I need a beer sign. That was not funny, by the way, and I have never given any money to these folks. I was driving from Dayton and I am running out of gas. Or, I have three kids and I just lose my job. Or I haven't had anything to eat today. These used to be so difficult for me to comprehend, especially after reading the Sidewalk book, where a beggar in New York City could make more money than someone who work nine to five stuffing envelope! That didn't sound fair to me. But how I differentiate what's true and what's not true. I stumbled upon these for so many years, until a couple of months ago, I met this great person, one of the most generous person I know, whose life has been touched by Jesus. This friend of mine said, who are you to judge that something is true or not true? What if it's true and you had a chance to save a life? What's not true is not your business. The whole conversation was laid upon how God would use us to help others (who else would do this?). And how we need to trust God that He will use all the bad situation, bad intention for the good. He is God. Who are we to question his command?

My friend gave me an example: so, you may be given a couple of dollars to an addict and he is going to use the money to buy drugs. The key is to pray before you give the money. Pray that God will use the money for his purpose, to get this person to know Him. You can't limit what God could do with it. May be he will go and buy some weed, but may be God will stir his heart after he talked to you and finally found that someone does care. May be he was just in a bad life situation and he just need some assurance and hope. The entire message told me that, by giving, you have done what God told you. And the rest of the story is His story. The rest of the story, what the other person will do with the money or the things you gave is His business. And God surely know what He's doing.

I know when God speaks to me: He stops my thoughts with a pause and something else came up in my mind and I know that's not mine.

God did that again last week. On Saturday, I organized a neighborhood clean up where I work. As I was waiting for people to show up, a lady came to me and said she just started to work and paid all her bills and she had nothing left for food in a week. This sounds like a familiar note, isn't it? In my mind, it's like a repeated sentence that I've memorized to know that someone was trying to make up something just to get something. I told her we will have food later in the day after the clean up. And she said, that's not enough because I need food for the week. I let her go. But she was in my mind all weekend long and on Monday I bought some groceries for her and drop them off her house. I've never seen her before, which is rare because I've known most of the people who live here, so I asked her neighbor, a community leader, if she knew who that lady was, and left the groceries with her. It doesn't cost me anything other than the same trip to the groceries I used to do, but still, it's difficult for me because my grocery bag contains only veggies and fruit and may be peanut butter! I bought her things that I would eat. After all that, I thought of so many opportunities I could help people when they asked me but I let go because of the thought that they might not telling me the truth. And how many times I have missed the opportunities to give.

Should we give out of want or out of need.
This friend of mine gave me a perfect example of how God is using him to bless other people around him. He set aside his savings to buy his co-worker a car so that he can go to work everyday. He always thought of it through before acting on giving, it's not like it's an impulse. He could care less what people think of him, his motivation was only to bless the people around him! It's easy for him to give money for a good cause, and it seems that he can control himself to be careful in his other not important spending such as eating out. He might not know this cause I know he won't read my blog, but I am inspired by what he does with his life.

Last night, I had another conversation with another friend who said, if I give to everyone who asked me things, I'll be broke. Really. Think about those guys who approached me in the garage (he works in downtown) and some people on the street. Do you think we should give out of what they want or what they need? I could understand what he said, being living and used to work in downtown, these kinds of scenarios are familiar. But, once again, who are we to judge that people asked for what they want? How do we know? but my argument to this, was, that we should ask God for provision before giving people money.

Smile is probably the biggest present.
When I walked around the neighborhood, that's what I tried to do. Just smile to the next person I saw on the street. It's not easy because I can't expect everyone to smile back to me; some people are bitter with life, some people are bitter with other people, they don't trust me sometimes. I see despair, I see the hole, the emptiness in their eyes that could only be filled by Jesus. Saying how are you doing or good morning is not easy for them either. But I believe that smile is the easiest gift I can give to them, even if I have to do it again and again at other times before they finally smile back at me.