Set the scene: walking through Hawassa, people everywhere. Look down to your right. A man is lying on his side on the sidewalk atop a tattered blanket, begging. A couple coins are strewn in front of him from the few donations he was able to collect. He has a dirty shirt but wears only half of his pants. One leg is in the other out, leaving not only his butt exposed but also the less than half of a leg that remains, amputated above the knee.
Do you look at him or look anxiously across the street?
Do you give a coin or say “Yellinyem”, I don’t have any?
I struggle to look at him. Not because I am repulsed by his situation but because of my own heartbreak. We often tend to justify not giving to people on the street: “they’ll use it on drugs” “they’re just trying to scam me” “why is ‘money’ the only word that they know in English? It’s frustrating.
It seems like a catch 22.
Extreme 1: Look at every broken individual. Give them all you have. Realize that smile will make them see love even if you don’t see the immediate results. At the end of the day feel the weight of the broken and cry.
Extreme 2: Don’t look, only respond when absolutely necessary. Save your heart. There will always be more where they came from.
Where can we draw the line between these two extremes?
Is it possible to give aid without crushing your own soul and feeling burnt out?
Is it possible to not give to everyone with out feeling cruel?
Where do we draw the line between compassion and complacency?
How do we separate out helping everyone in need and singling out which heart-breaking case to ignore?
How did Jesus deal with that? This is one man that I saw. One moment of heartbreak and I am never to see him again in my life. Jesus had crowds that followed him.
I don’t have an answer to this; these are merely musings on my observations of hurt. I think there is a line that we straddle on a daily basis. The one verse that kept popping up in my readings is Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me”. Tis better to give than to receive.
Katie
