Gratuity and Giving to All Who Ask
I was reading an interview with my favorite author Shane Claiborne the other day and he brought up a verse that oddly enough I had never heard, or taken to heart, before. Luke 6:30 says, “Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not insist on getting it back.” You know, I actually remember this verse now…but it said something different to me, or was taught differently to me, than the way it speaks to me today. I remember this verse as saying “Don’t expect your money back when you loan it to friends,” not what it actually says in “Give to EVERYONE who ASKS.”
Shane says that he takes this verse to heart…that he literally gives to ALL who ask. What an idea. I always seem to justify why I do not give to many people on the Subway. “If I gave to everyone then I would be broke….so I just don’t give…they’re stories are complete lies anyways…I’ll would buy them food, but I’m on a Subway.” I’m reminded of Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm where he jokes/complains about how he has to tip everyone he comes in contact with…the taxi driver, the doorman, the guy that brings his bags to the hotel room, and so on and so on. The crazy thing is, we all tip these people. We tip our haircutters. We tip our baristas, our waiters. I’ve benefited much from tipping in the past. What strikes me is odd is that this is the social norm and yet we don’t always give to those who ask…who probably need it more. Wait, they’ll probably spend it on alcohol or cigarettes…or gamble it…they’re story is complete BS anyways, right? “Give to EVERYONE who ASKS of you.”
My roommate Nick is a great guy with a huge heart. As most of you heard about the “Miracle on the Hudson” last week where a heroic pilot safely landed all 155 people on board the US Airways flight in the Hudson River, my friend Nick hadn’t watched the news that day. The first time he heard about the story was when a woman and her kid approached him at a coffee shop and said they were on the plane. She worriedly told him that they had no place to stay and no food to eat and they were supposed to move to her cousin’s place out in North Carolina, but when the plane went down they were back on the streets. She told him that she needed groceries and had a list of things for him to buy if he had it in his heart to help out…and of course he had it in his heart. My first reaction to this story was “Baloney. If she was really on that plane she would be having a debriefing with authorities and then have a bomb hotel suite waiting for her.” Instantly realizing how callous and un-Christian my sentiment was I added (more for my sake than for his) “You know what though, she needed it. However much she was lying, she truly needed your help.” It was at this moment that my attitude changed.
This is my new attitude: I don’t care if you are lying. I don’t care if you say the same exact made-up thing every single day to convince the tourists to help you out…I need to help you out. “Give to EVERYONE who asks of you.” My point about the tipping earlier is this: If we give 20 percent to people who are doing their job (and only 15 to those who aren’t doing it so well) then why can’t we also give to people who NEED it and ASK for it? The second part of that verse was to “Not insist on getting it back.” I think we should read this as “(Do) not insist on getting any sort of payment in return.” Let’s all just give to those who ask, no matter what…wouldn’t that be radical? I’ll take the lead.
for the wild,
andrew
