As far as Flo* goes. I met her at the local supermarket where she works. I don’t see this relationship working out for either of us because we are so different, or in Christian parlance, we are unequally yoked. I got on her checkout line a few times and we had some fun chats. When I got home and checked my bill, on one of those days, it seems that Flo had put her telephone number on this piece of paper with a message to call her that night. My, oh my, I wondered if I should call her?
At the time, even though I knew this would probably be a mistake I couldn’t resist calling her since I was lonely. Loneliness as a chief motivator, is always a bad reason to do anything. I had just moved into my new home without my husband. He was busy selling our old house in Westchester County, New York. Now, I have to ask myself over and over again, “what did I get myself into?”
Here’s the breakdown on Flo: she takes some south Asian plant called Kratom to handle pain supposedly from an accident that she had several years ago. And, she seems to be in pain all the time and not just where she supposedly sustained her injury. Does this seem like some sort of pain killer addiction and rebound effect to you? She is in the process of a lawsuit to get monetary damages from that accident. She is depending upon that money as well as Covid relief funds to financially survive. She is currently underemployed and gets fired from jobs a lot. Hmm, none of this sounds good.
Oh, and Flo lent $150 dollars to a friend named Yvonne* who happens to also be the wife of an ex-con. This money was supposed to be used to buy concert tickets for the two of them. Flo gave Yvonne $100 for her ticket and she lent her $50 dollars towards the cost of Yvonne’s ticket since this grown woman was going to a concert she could not currently afford. Only, the woman ended up taking the money and buying two tickets for her and her recently released jailbird husband. I wonder if he is violating parole by staying out too late? Anyway, this all came up when she asked me if I knew anything about small claims court.
I let Flo know that I had no personal experience with small claims court except for what I might have read over the years or heard from others. How can one person have so much crazy stuff going on? Oh, and did I fail to mention that her neighbors have complained about her to her landlord because she feeds feral cats and leaves food on her porch for them every night? Now, her landlord is trying to get her evicted apparently.
By the way, according to her everything wrong in her life is someone else’s fault. Here are some of her pronouncements: her lack of a job is due to her accident. Her father is to blame for her series of dead end jobs. Men are not to be trusted, it is much better to own a cat. Her landlord and neighbors suck. Finally, no one will tell her “not to take care of suffering cats.”
In this world, God calls us to reflect his message to those around us. Most of those people are lost in a sinful and morally bankrupt life. We are to point to the Savior in that case but, we are not the savior. How good it is to know that I can not solve Flo’s problems but, that I can try to tell her about how knowing Jesus has given me direction and healing in my life.
I am the seed planter and the Lord brings those seeds to harvest. As long as I keep that straight, then I am okay. Still what is a Christian way to handle the mentally ill, the criminal or addicted individuals among us? Knowing the Lord has given me a heart for the poor and suffering but, in the past I got hurt by helping those in need. When you are dealing with the ill who are in need of the great physician then, you are going to run into some messed up things.
But, the Bible gives us practical boundaries which tell us to guard our heart and actions. It also directs us to not be unequally tied to people who are not believers. Therefore I can try to assist her with prayer, and some practical suggestions but, i can not allow myself to get caught up in her dysfunction. This is pretty hard to do unless you are a mature holy-spirit directed Christian. Following Jesus ultimately results in a soft and caring heart which is why I feel for this woman.
It is so abundantly clear to me that Flo would thrive if she had the clarity that only the Bible can bring. But, so far, she never picks up on any of the threads of discussion that I begin about Jesus. There seems to be some ways that I can bless her now. Some of those ways are materially but, they are mostly spiritually.
She needs a lot of help as regards the practicalities of her daily life. I need to make sure that I don’t pass by an injured person on the side of the road. I need to strive to be a Good Samaritan not someone who see’s people in need and ignores them. This must be regardless of the fact that there are things that I don’t like about her (not unlike in that famous story).
The story of the Good Samaritan shows me two things very clearly. Firstly, that I am a sinner. In reading the story of the Good Samaritan, I always imagined that I would be the good guy who stops and helps a person in need, but the truth is that I am both the one who cares for those in need and the ones who ignore those in need. With God’s help I can be the one who cares. The story secondly makes it clear that we help those whom we love and repel from those we don’t love. It hurts to help those that we do not like. That point seems very poignant as I see the United States in a spiritual divorce. Every day people rage and hurt those opposed to their point of view.
The story of the Good Samaritan balanced with reflections on Jesus’ teachings shows us that it is important to help lead someone to the spiritual truth of salvation and not enable people to do evil as you help them. That will help me not to swoop in and do a lot of stuff that might make me feel like a good person but, won’t help her address the real issues of her life. This way it may be possible, with the Lord’s help, to get her life back on track.
* the names have been changed but, if any of the folks who this is about read this, they will be mad at me.
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