"We are Beggars"

(The following are some thoughts I wrote out on paper about a year ago and thought I would share on this blog.)

You see them on any given street corner and intersection in America.  They hold their pleas on a cardboard sign.  "Hungry.  Need Help.  God Bless."  True, their grammar may not be the best in the world, but you try to know their intent.  You also look around to see if there is a news crew hiding in a nearby parking lot filming what is going on.  You've seen the stories of such people -- begging for help only to go home in a decent 3 bedroom "shack" on the South Side.  You want to help, but you're afraid you might be one of the people they spotlight in that story.

You might be interested to know that, in all actuality, you're not that far off from the "street urchin" you shun as you turn to go to Wal-Mart or that favorite restaurant.  Now don't get me wrong, you may not be standing at an intersection anytime soon, but think about this...

Martin Luther -- you know, the guy who put the Catholic church on it's ear when he posted those 95 theses on that door several hundred years ago, carried around a simple three word phrase in his pocket.  That phrase was "We are beggars."  Obviously it was written in German, but I don't know German that well to type it out, but you get the idea.  We may not all be standing in the intersection pleading for a couple of dollars here and there, but we go humbly before the Lord in prayer.

We beg God for His mercy -- His mercies are new every morning.
We sing the song "more love, more power...more of You in my life."  We do that, but are we giving enough to get more?  I'm not going to go to the offering Scriptures here (II Cor 9), so you are safe for now.

I saw a T-shirt in a Christian bookstore that made me think of this.  It said "I'm just a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread".  Psalm 37:25 "I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned (or forsaken), or his children begging bread."  But we can tell others, "Hey, I know where you can get food.  You may not have now, but I can show (or even take) you somewhere where you CAN have...and have it more abundantly."

Forced Issue?

Last night, our family went to a benefit pancake and sausage supper in the town of Bessie, OK (8 miles South of Clinton).  It's kind of a family tradition -- we've been going for quite a long time.  Plus, it was my Mom and Dad's 30 Anniversary, so what better way to celebrate, huh?  It is highly recommended and it's the one time of year that the population of Bessie swells -- not just as much as the volume of people, but the volume of food consumed!

But that's not my rant.  My rant involves a little moment that occurred there.  Someone that was there was going around the table where we were sitting telling us (in a rather forceful way) that we should vote FOR a bond issue that is being decided today here in Clinton.  The $17mil issue is for basically "Extreme Makeover:  Clinton Public Schools Edition" -- adding classrooms, remodeling the Middle School auditorium (believe you me, it needs it) and several other projects.

What's got me going is is this particular person was, as I said, rather forceful in telling us to vote for this project.  One, last I checked, the beauty of us being Americans is that we have the right to choose.  Give us the lowdown on what all you need, how much it is going to cost, etc.  But going around telling me how I should vote is completely unacceptable.  Hey, Clinton needs this as bad as probably any other school district in Oklahoma...but you should not TELL me how I should vote.  I'll decide that on my own when I get to the polling place.

Secondly...again, last I checked, we were in Bessie, Oklahoma.  Bessie is not in the city limits of Clinton.  This person was way out of her jurisdiction to do that.  People who live in and around Bessie go to 2 or 3 other school districts -- Washita Heights, Corn Bible Academy or Cordell.  Do you think that they give a rat's tail on a bond issue in Clinton.  NO!!!!

I'm sure the person I'm "ratting out" is going to see this and accost me for it since we go to the same church.  Oh well.  She shouldn't have done what she did.  What we were doing last night was celebrating Small Town Western Oklahoma and continuing a family tradition.  What we didn't need was someone making a campaign stop.  (For the record, I do support the bond issues in question.  I just didn't get around in time to change my address so I can vote today.)