Church was like a foreign land to my dad.  But every now and then Mama would grant him a temporary visa to attend.  It seemed like every time the poor man went with her, it was tithing time.  The Southern Baptist preacher would seem to stare right at the poor guy, telling him that the life he was leading would mean a sure deportation to Hell, and his only salvation was to put some loot in the collection plate.  A couple of times my dad went, the preacher even went so far as to lock the church doors until the tithes equaled what the preacher needed.  

Well, I never felt that kind of pressure.  But I am one to readily make eye contact with strangers.  And there was a several-years period back when I had less than nothing that folks who needed a hand out would find me easily.  They would cross entire parking lots to get to me.  They would walk right past floozy women loading bags and bags of groceries into their late model and highly equipped SUVs and right to me, standing next to my ’93 Chrysler, smoking a cigarette butt I had just plucked out of my nasty New Yorker ash tray.  They would ask for help.  And I always obliged.  It was never very much, but it was usually whatever I had.

I guess I would have been a lot better off if I had hung onto a coin or two and turned those needy guys down a few times.  But a Bible verse from my Southern Baptist days kept running through my mind.  I don’t remember it exactly, and I sure don’t remember the book, chapter and verse numbers.  But it goes something like, “If somebody needs something, don’t turn ‘em down.”  So I don’t.  I once asked my Southern Baptist mom, “Mama, if you only had ten-dollars to your name, and someone approached you and told you they needed ten-dollars that night, would you hang onto that money for your needs the next day, or would give it away and have faith that God would provide for your needs tomorrow?”  She very matter-of-factly replied, “Well, I would give the money away.”  That was enough to tell me that I had been doing the right thing all along.

But still.  Folks asking for money can be a pain.  I know a guy who’s asking for some loot for a stupid blog or two.  Don’t do it if you don’t want to.  It’s just a blog.  He won’t lock the doors and refuse to let you out.  He won’t promise you salvation or anything of the sort.  And, God knows, there will be no eye contact.  So don’t do it.

Unless you really want to .  It would be awesome if you do.

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