Homeless Herbert
Wow, this past week really flew by. I can't believe I haven't written a post since last Monday. Well I've been keeping pretty busy, and the time just keeps moving. A few points of conversation today.
Flying Lessons:o
First off, I haven't had a flying lesson since my first last Monday. I had one scheduled for yesterday (Saturday) however, with the terrible Spring weather of Cincinnati, it was canceled. My ratio of completed to canceled lessons isn't so great, I'm right now 1 to 3. It's alright now though. I've had my first experience, and I know that I love it, so it will just be an enjoyable hobby from here n out.
Homeless Herbert:
So I've been going back and forth about Homeless Herbert. If you read a number of posts ago, Herbert is the guy that I take out to lunch after church on Sundays. However, the thoughts that are with me are, am I giving this man an easy way out? He seems of sound mind, and I have to wonder, why is he homeless? Is he being helped out enough that he doesn't have to do anything productive with his life? I don't want to be a prop in his master plan to do nothing, but I also want to be able to help someone out who hasn't been as fortunate as I have been. Any thoughts? Another part that plagues my thoughts are of what he gets when we go to lunch. He doesn't pick the cheap fast food places, he decides on nice sub places like Penn Station, where the prices are rather high for the amount of food you get.
This has been our Sunday Lunches:
Week 1: Jersey Mike's with one Giant sub with chips and drink totaling 10 dollars
Week 2: Penn Station with one large sub and one small sub with chips and drink totaling just under 20 dollars, and a burrito from Chipotle with a grand total of 25 dollars
Week 3: Penn Station with one large sub and one small sub with chips and drink, he asked for Chipotle but I requested we only eat the one place... he obliged. Total of just under 20 dollars
Week 4: Easter Sunday, I was home for the weekend and wasn't around to take him out
Week 5: Today, we went to Jersey Mike's and he asked for two sandwiches, I requested he only order one, and so he got the Giant sub with chips and drink totaling 10 dollars.
Is he taking advantage of me? When he greets me while walking into church, he now says, see you after church? He expects it.
Google Mail/Applications:
I was going to talk a bit about my new found favorite web applications with Google, however, this post got rather lengthy rather quickly. So I'll save this for a soon to be post
Better weather is on the way. I'm flying on Tuesday and Friday after work this week. I can't wait, I've been doing my reading and homework, I'm all good to go. Later!
Flying Lessons:o
First off, I haven't had a flying lesson since my first last Monday. I had one scheduled for yesterday (Saturday) however, with the terrible Spring weather of Cincinnati, it was canceled. My ratio of completed to canceled lessons isn't so great, I'm right now 1 to 3. It's alright now though. I've had my first experience, and I know that I love it, so it will just be an enjoyable hobby from here n out.
Homeless Herbert:
So I've been going back and forth about Homeless Herbert. If you read a number of posts ago, Herbert is the guy that I take out to lunch after church on Sundays. However, the thoughts that are with me are, am I giving this man an easy way out? He seems of sound mind, and I have to wonder, why is he homeless? Is he being helped out enough that he doesn't have to do anything productive with his life? I don't want to be a prop in his master plan to do nothing, but I also want to be able to help someone out who hasn't been as fortunate as I have been. Any thoughts? Another part that plagues my thoughts are of what he gets when we go to lunch. He doesn't pick the cheap fast food places, he decides on nice sub places like Penn Station, where the prices are rather high for the amount of food you get.
This has been our Sunday Lunches:
Week 1: Jersey Mike's with one Giant sub with chips and drink totaling 10 dollars
Week 2: Penn Station with one large sub and one small sub with chips and drink totaling just under 20 dollars, and a burrito from Chipotle with a grand total of 25 dollars
Week 3: Penn Station with one large sub and one small sub with chips and drink, he asked for Chipotle but I requested we only eat the one place... he obliged. Total of just under 20 dollars
Week 4: Easter Sunday, I was home for the weekend and wasn't around to take him out
Week 5: Today, we went to Jersey Mike's and he asked for two sandwiches, I requested he only order one, and so he got the Giant sub with chips and drink totaling 10 dollars.
Is he taking advantage of me? When he greets me while walking into church, he now says, see you after church? He expects it.
Google Mail/Applications:
I was going to talk a bit about my new found favorite web applications with Google, however, this post got rather lengthy rather quickly. So I'll save this for a soon to be post
Better weather is on the way. I'm flying on Tuesday and Friday after work this week. I can't wait, I've been doing my reading and homework, I'm all good to go. Later!
Labels: Homeless
posted by Jason Pawlak at
3:24 PM
1 Comments:
Jason, all you can do is weigh the cost/benefit ratio. What you have to know is that, in my experience, a high percentage of transient people excel at playing the religion game in order to get their needs met. They are often forced to in order to meet the requirements placed on them by well-meaning Christian volunteers.
Their needs are usually harmless - food, friendship, sometimes someone to feel sorry for them, sometimes money. If you've got a real, vibrant, sold-out walk with God, and a desire to see this guy in eternity, then you can look at the lunch money spent as a converted investment - earthly to heavenly, which is where we're to store up our treasures. If you can build the relationship to the point where you can ask the questions about "do you have a job," or "do you need help getting social assistance," or that sort of thing, good. If he puts up a wall, you're getting used.
See if you can work towards giving him a fishing rod instead of just handing out fish. You're right, he does have to make his own choices about how his life goes too. But as my friend at the soup kitchen once told me, sometimes all people need is help straightening out the red tape that they don't understand in order to get their life re-started.
The question is, do you have your prayer and Bible-reading game on well enough to follow what God wants you to do to help this man? It may make no reasonable, earthly sense at all.
On that note, to keep from writing an entire saga here, maybe I'll go post about "my children" who we picked up on the side of the road a few years back.
Cat
By
C.L. Dyck, At
April 16, 2007 at 7:37 PM
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