Paper Clothes

The other day I was driving home from work, and as I stopped at a red light downtown I saw a really strange site.  A man was walking across the crosswalk.  In the big city (well, in a city like Birmingham anyway), that is not an unusual site.  What made it strange and unusual, however, were his demeanor and his clothes – yes, his clothes.   His demeanor was that of a broken down, oppressed homeless person, walking with a bit of a shuffle as if he were struggling with some physical illness or weakness.  That can be unusual in and of itself, but what made it really strange were his paper clothes.  That’s right, his clothes were paper!  They were the kind of paper clothes you might see in a hospital or doctor’s office – and were blue like that as well.  The thing is, where we were – near the downtown museum and county jail – there are no doctor’s offices and the closest hospital is UAB on Southside.  Had this been on Southside near UAB, I probably would not even have thought twice about it, but here… it was out of place.

As we shuffled across the street in front of my car, he never looked up, but rather just kept shuffling and disappeared down the cross street.  Everything inside of me (at first) wanted to roll down the window and shout “Dude, what’s up with the paper clothes?”  After all, paper clothes?  They are fragile.  A good stout wind and you are likely to be walking around naked.  Let’s not even think about what will happen if it rains.  However, as I thought it over, I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps something was really wrong – that perhaps he needed assistance.  What if those were the only clothes he had?  What if he was a patient somewhere and, because of confusion or some other mental condition, simply wandered out of the hospital? 

About that time, the light changed to green.  I was in the center lane of traffic and (if I were to justify myself) had no other choice but to drive on.  In other words, I was not the Good Samaritan that day.

Since that day, I can’t seem to get that poor guy and his paper clothes out of my mind.  I can easily justify having not taken any action; but like the teacher of the law the day Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, our responsibility is not to justify ourselves, but to go out and do likewise – that is, be a neighbor.   I’m not really sure what I could have done for the paper clothes guy, but I have had to repent of the fact that, rather than trying to figure out if I could do something, I justified myself.  It would have been an inconvenience; it might have even been risky; but it still would have been the “neighbor” thing to do.

Being a good neighbor to the strangest of strangers can be all of those things – inconvenient, risky, and possibly even dangerous – but that is our calling as Christians.  Allow me to give you another example – one in which I did not justify myself, but rather passed the test.

The other day – about a week or so before I saw the paper clothes guy – I received a phone call.  The man claimed to be someone who visited our church back on Easter; and frankly, I only have a vague, back of my mind, shadowy memory of the guy.  He needed to talk because (allegedly) his mother in Florida had been killed by a drunk driver and he was having difficulty dealing with that.  This is understandable as such a tragedy can have a profoundly negative impact on one’s faith.  After counseling with him over the phone for well over half an hour, the shoe finally dropped.  The man was looking for money.  (Allegedly) He and his family were trapped in a small town in Florida after, on their way home, their vehicle threw a rod.  He had enough money to buy a bus ticket for himself and his wife, but not enough for his two little girls. 

Normally, if you contact our church in need of money, we are probably going to refer you to our benevolence ministry partner, Serving You (www.servingyou.org) – unless of course it is an emergency.  Because we are to be good stewards of the resources God has given us, we partner with Serving You because they have the infrastructure in place not only to vet the legitimacy of a person claiming to need help, but the ongoing programs and counseling to help get the person solidly on their feet again.  This way, we are not just giving a handout, but rather are giving a helping hand.  Of course, if it is an emergency, that is a different story – and of course this was going to be an emergency.  The gentlemen needed the money THAT day because the bus only ran through that small town every other day.  If they missed the bus that afternoon, it would be two days before they could catch the next one (which, of course, means more hotel and food expenses as well).  He, too, was wearing paper clothes – at least methaphorically.

To be honest, I had no way of knowing whether this was a legitimate need or (an extremely elaborate) hoax.  So I said a quick prayer asking God for the wisdom and guidance to know what to do.  I even called several folks in the church to see if (a) they knew him or (b) at least remember his visit.  Only one had a similar, vague memory like my own, but no one I talked to that day knew him.  I had to rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and so God gave me the peace that – even if it were a hoax – wiring him the money was the right thing to do.  So I agreed to wire the money and asked that he contact me when he got home so that we could get together and talk about his situation further.  Clearly, their family was in both spiritual and physical need so, in addition to spiritual counsel, I wanted to put him in touch with Serving You.  The last time I heard from him was a text that afternoon confirming that he received the wired money.  Since then… silence.

I have texted, but have received no reply.  I have tried numerous times to call him.  However, all I get is a message saying the number is not receiving incoming calls.  My suspicions (at least those that result from having half a brain) are at a pretty high level, although in my spirit, I still have this calm that he was not legitimate, but also that I did the right thing in helping him.  It was a big risk on my part, but my conscious is clear that I followed the prompting of God.  Better to be cheated than to be in disobedience to God.

Here is the thing.  Every day we cross paths with people who are wearing paper clothes.  We all have those times where our situation is so fragile that a stout wind or rain would leave us naked.  And yes, of course, I am speaking metaphorically.  For each of us to be neighbor like the Good Samaritan, we have to love our neighbor enough to be willing to take risks for him (or her) – even the strange ones – even the ones we don’t know.  That takes a great deal of faith on our part, and while we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the resources that God has given us, sometimes we just have to step out and be inconvenienced.