Reaching Out
Read: Luke 18:1-8
I work at a Social Security hearings office, where people who have been denied disability benefits can come before a judge to appeal. You might say that I have seen it all -- the man who had not cut his fingernails for years and came in for his hearing with his yellowed nails dragging on the floor, the woman who was so heavy that she could barely fit through our doors, and people who practically skip through the parking lot and then limp into the hearing room with a cane. It would be easy to become cynical, after 25 years of watching claimants come and go. We certainly have employees in our office who refer to such people using very derogatory terms and are less than accommodating. I have also noticed that when I tell people where I work the response is usually, “Oh, you must see a lot of phonies -- people trying to bilk the system.”
The truth is that the vast majority of those individuals coming in for hearings are decent, hard-working people who are merely down on their luck. They may be seriously ill and unable to work, or they may be unable to perform their heavy-labor job and are unskilled for other positions. Many times those trying to “cheat” the system also have a sad history of hardship and despair.
I try to remember that each individual that comes into our office is entitled to be treated with respect and compassion. I try to remember that Jesus showed us how we, as Christians, must reach out to our fellow man. After all, Jesus came to the aid of those who were outcasts -- a prostitute, leper, and blind man.
I recently ran across a quote by George Bernard Shaw, which I have placed on my refrigerator as a constant reminder:
“THE GREAT SECRET ... IS NOT HAVING BAD MANNERS OR GOOD MANNERS … BUT HAVING THE SAME MANNER FOR ALL HUMAN SOULS: IN SHORT, BEHAVING AS IF YOU WERE IN HEAVEN, WHERE THERE ARE NO THIRD-CLASS CARRIAGES, AND ONE SOUL IS AS GOOD AS ANOTHER.”
Jan Versical
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