There's a sucker born every minute.
I know this because I am one.
Our church is located on a highway. Our town doesn't connect any major cities but it does connect some towns. For some reason, there is a consistent flow of transients that stop at our church and ask for gas money. Sometimes we are able to help them, and sometimes we have to send them elsewhere for help. We learn pretty quickly who the swindlers are and who really does need the help. In our experience, repeat beggars are often those who really don't need as much help as they purport to need.
Today I was alone at the church waiting for a fund raiser meeting. On my way to the rest room I spotted a note taped to the exit door. I went to the door and removed it and tried to read the scrawl. It was a rambling little note about how God had lead this person to this church and it was attached to an odd little prayer that didn't quite line up with the Word of God. It was signed, "A Traveler from Florida."
When I looked up I saw a tiny elderly lady dressed in a white scarf and beige trench coat. She was taping the bumper of her van together with duct tape.
"Hello, Beloved," she said in an Irish brogue. I was intrigued. Who was she? She had a pleasant little face and while I already assumed she was a transient, I wasn't prepared for her act of sincere spirituality.
She rambled on and on about something that the Lord had told her this morning and finally she came to the question I knew was coming, "And do ye have a little to spare, Beloved? I put my last three dollars in the tank and it took all of it to get here," she said.
She pointed out to me that hers was a Florida van (we are in Indiana) and pointed out the license tag to me. She told me how it was so old and she didn't even know if it was going to make it here or not. There was a strange sign on the back -- something about 9-11 with Jesus.
I was suspicious of her, of course, but the scripture always plays in my mind when I meet these people, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Hebrews 13:2. How could I know whether or not she really was in need? What if she really was an angel the Lord had sent to test me? ;-) And besides, there was that charming Irish lilt and that sweet face. And I'm sorry, but when someone calls me "Beloved" it does tend to melt my heart.
"Sure," I smiled. "I'll be right back."
I went into petty cash and came out with five dollars. I knew that five dollars would give her enough gas to get back to the town she said she came from. I also knew that if she was lying it wouldn't be so much that it would hurt anything.
Later, she came back into the church and asked for someone to jump her car. I called my husband. He said when he jumped it it didn't sound like it was a dead battery. He also told me that he saw her shopping at the grocery store. Hm.
I went to my meeting and as I was leaving in my own van late at night, I noticed my gas gauge was on empty. That seemed odd. I had a half of a tank of gas in there that morning -- at least I thought I did. Maybe my husband borrowed the van during the day and I didn't know it.
I called him and asked about getting gas and he told me he had just put $20.00 in it.
Then it hit me.
Could it be, could it just be, that the sweet little lady who called me "Beloved" was siphoning gas from my tank and only pretending to fix her bumper? She was parked close to my van. . .
She did sign her note "A Traveler. . ."
There are "Travellers" in our county. These are "gypsies" of North America. Not all of them, but some of them are very slick operators, are able to cheat people out of money by doing poor jobs mostly in construction. They are very nomadic and rarely get caught. And yes, many of them are Irish. Just google "Irish Travellers" and see what you find.
Could it just be she was one of them?
I will probably never know. What I do know is that I'm missing $20.00 worth of gas!
I have mixed emotions. If it is true this lady took me for $5.00 and $20.00 worth of gas -- I have to hand it to her for her acting ability. She sure fooled me.
Am I a sucker, or am I just trying to do what Jesus said to do, "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" Matthew 5:41?
I might be a sucker, and it might cost me some money in the long run. But I hope I never get to the point where I don't want to help someone because I have been burned too many times. What if God was like that? What if He gave up on helping us because of our antics?
I'll keep looking for the good in people, and I'll keep reaching out as long as God does the same for me. And according to the book He wrote -- He always, always will.
"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."
Psalm 37:23-25
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