Thursday mornings are my most favorite time of the week. That’s when I spend two or three hours helping the underserved in our community at a neighborhood church. Most of the people who show up are regulars, and I’ve gotten to know them by name, if not by face.
I’m torn between what I can do to help and what I don’t do. I couldn’t answer the blind guy who asked me why God was punishing him, after he’d spent his life helping other people. How do you answer that? I asked a priest about it later and she said that my answer (“I don’t know but it’s not fair”) was what she would have said.
Then there was the woman, unemployed, eight months pregnant with three other kids, who refused my offer of a box of infant clothes because they were clothes for a baby girl and she was expecting a boy. WHAAAAAAAAAAA???? And some of the clothes were yellow.
I know dignity is that last thing people have and it’s something I try to respect and honor in everyone I serve. But I just don’t get the baby clothes thing.
It is a conundrum! At Suited for Change, we sometimes have a similar experience. An unemployed woman, an opportunity and yet she rejects assistance to help her move from where she’s at to a new place. It is somehow easier to stay with what she knows. In this case “boys wear blue.” Thanks to all who keep trying!