“Our job is to 
love others 
without stopping 
to inquire  
whether or not  
they are worthy.”
Thomas Merton

Despite the wet pavement, the young woman got down on one knee. She looked directly into the eyes of the homeless man sitting on the sidewalk. She smiled, introduced herself, talked with him a bit, and offered him a cup of hot coffee and a homemade care package containing a blanket, clean socks, a toothbrush with toothpaste, and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Some might wonder why. Why would she bother doing this? Does she really believe that this is going to change the man’s life? Isn’t she just enabling him to continue to live a life of of misery?

Thomas Merton’s words quoted above are powerful. Who are we to decide who’s worthy and who’s not?

The cost of the woman’s gifts to the homeless man adds up to about fifty dollars. It’s probably not something she would do every day of the week, but how about once a month? Or even twice a year. I would think that’s doable for most people. Consider the cost of a daily grande latte at Starbucks. That’ll run at least five dollars per day, so in a month, that would add up to no less than $150. Most people don’t think twice about that kind of expense.

Okay, so the image above was created with AI. (Anyone familiar with San Francisco would recognize this right away.) And the story about the woman in the photo helping the homeless man… yeah, it’s fiction, too. But there’s a method to my madness.

I am convinced that all of us, to some degree, can do more to help those in need than we currently do. What we choose to do, and how often we choose to do it, is a matter of conscience. In this blog post, I’m just trying to rattle the cage a little bit to remind us all that we can do more. The need around us is real. What we do doesn’t have to be monumental, nor does it need to be recognized. It just needs to be done.

The ball is in our court.