The Beggar in All of Us!

Sometimes, when I am sitting and quiet enough to listen, God speaks to me. Maybe not through words, but through my surroundings. He did it again this morning as I sat at a salteña shop on the busy streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia. A place I call home.

There was always plenty of beggers on the sidewalks surrounding, churches, touristy areas, nice restaurants and even little snack shops before, but with the worsening economy in Bolivia, now there are more.

The streets, depending on the time of year, are loaded with short little Quechua men, woman, and children begging for anything you will give them. It is a huge business. Their families send them into the cities for weeks and months at a time to beg…not because they have to…but because it is a lucrative way to make a living…for doing nothing…but begging.

I had not been at my seat long before an old dirty woman with very few teeth approached me with a dirty plastic cup. As she stood slouched before me, she mumbled something incoherent. I, like the people she had approached before me, just motioned a polite, “No.” She mumbled something else and turned to the next person.

Soon, a young lady came to my table and asked what I would like. She was four feet tall with heels and had a beautiful smile and was working very hard going from table to table. She was doing a great job and I thought, as I looked at her taking orders and wiping off tables as people left, ”What’s the difference? Here she is working very hard and not five feet away…a group of beggars literally sit on the steps of the shop and beg for what they want.”

Then, sure as shootin, a couple in front of me, paid their bill, got up from the table, and did not leave one single coin for the girl who had worked so hard to serve them. But you know what they did? They walked down the steps, sought the beggar lady out…and gave her a coin. She must not have been impressed with it either, because she made a face at them and shoved the coin in her pocket without a single word of thanks…not even a toothless smile of gratitude. She got something that she had not done a thing for…she did not deserve it…but she walked away with the hand out…while the girl who worked hard for it…was passed by. The next thing I tell you will probably make you angry…especially if you have worked hard for what you have.

Like it or not…that is an exact picture of salvation. You, nor I, nor anyone else on this planet, deserves salvation. It is a gift to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have not done a thing to deserve it. The entire price was paid by someone else…and yet, we reap the reward. We get the freebie. We are like the beggars at the stop signs and traffic lights and restaurants and snack shops. God has given us the hand out to beat all hand outs. We can’t be productive enough to earn salvation…and we still win the prize.

Next time I see someone with a sign or see someone with a dirty cup or hear about the same guy that just goes to the same place every day to beg…I think, I will think differently about him or her…I am no better. I am a beggar…just too proud to admit it…aren’t we all?

In Bolivia, Wick 4/8/11