A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Proverbs 25:28, ESV

A woman came to the church building on Thanksgiving. She was a small woman and looked to be at least in her seventies. It was a cold day and I had seen her through the glass doors as she was walking down the street. She had a familiar look to her, I'm not sure if it was because I had seen her before or just someone like her, but I had a feeling she would be stopping in. She passed the building at first, but a few minutes later she was up the steps and in the door. She said she needed money and a ride.

I wasn't able to help her as much as she would have liked. In over 40 years of helping people in such situations I have found that the giving of money is not always as helpful as it may seem. I did offer her a ride, but she walked away mad. I wondered, as I always do when handling the homeless, if I had done the right thing. I went home and got my wife. We got a small packet of food together and got back in the car to look for our little old lady. She wasn't hard to find as we located her wandering around back of another church building in town. I broke a long standing and experienced formed policy, and told her we could give her some money.

She got in the car and we drove her to the town she was headed to. We were going to drop her off at a motel, but she indicated it was not good enough. We offered her the food we had brought, but she refused that saying she had a delicate palate and could only eat certain things. Finally, we ended up dropping her off at a convenience store where she disappeared inside. We pulled out wondering if we had done the right thing in giving her money, but you know how it is. It was Thanksgiving. She was old and on her own. Probably we will never know if we did more harm than good, and for sure we will always wonder.

I have thought about this type a situation a lot down through the years. The people I have dealt with in countless, similar situations always seem to have a few common traits. They have often abused drugs or alcohol to the point that they lose everything they have, Or they have gotten into some trouble with the law (this particular woman stated her disdain for the police because they were always harassing her). Or they have such an attitude towards authority that they cannot keep a job. There are a million different variations, but they always seem to have this in common: They have rejected God's instructions on discipline for so long that they have become like a city with broken down walls.

All too often it is a problem of discipline. I have observed over the years that if a child is not given the proper type of discipline, or if they have rejected the rightful discipline of their parents and teachers,  they will eventually have society step in and give them that discipline the hard way. This type of discipline usually ends up with the legal system rendering a punishment that the person without discipline cannot bear. Eventually, inevitably, these people seem to end up on the streets, being relegated to a life of begging, and harassment and all sorts of dangers that lurk for people brought to such depths. 

I know that this has not been overly cheerful, for these types of stories rarely have a happy ending... but it doesn't have to be that way. You and I can help where we can of course, and we need to do our prayerful best to give the help we can. Before we left this little old lady out, we prayed with her, and we have been praying that God will give her what she needs and help her to see what she needs to do for herself. It won't be enough if she continues to reject the help that God can give, but I pray that she will cease to reject His authority.

I know that not all people in bad circumstances have brought it all on themselves - such situations usually have a few of accomplices along the way. But I take comfort in the fact that all such situations do not have to have tragic endings, How do I know that? Well, in part, because of this truth recorded by King David some 3,000 years ago:

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread.

Psalms 37:25, KJV 

Sounds too easy, I know, but there are my thoughts on a difficult issue that is all too common in the day and age in which we live. We have a lot to be thankful for, and we can help those who are less fortunate as best we can, but self-discipline and righteousness are a good place to start when we find our circumstances being more desperate than we can bear. And, of course, we can do nothing without God's help so we need to be continually seeking that assistance.