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 – 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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