Sorry, I don't have any cash...

"Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you." - Matthew 5:42

I walked into Walgreens, child in tow, and upon entering the sliding doors I was stopped by a disheveled young guy and his girlfriend.  Both looked high.

"Hey, I'm trying to catch the bus with my girlfriend.  Do you have any change you could spare?"

"Sorry, I don't."

As we kept walking into the store, my daughter asked, "Mama, what did he want?"

I looked down at her big, innocent brown eyes and said, "He wanted money to catch the bus." 

"Oh" was her reply.

A little further into the store we were again stopped by a young woman who looked worn and tired.  She said, "Ma'am, I'm so sorry to bother you, but I'm a brittle diabetic and I'm just trying to get some money to get food at the KFC next door.  Can I trouble you for some change?"

"I'm sorry, I don't have any cash," I replied.

"Thank you anyway, Ma'am.  God bless you."  She hung her head down and kept walking on to ask other customers.

"She didn't have any food, Mama?" my daughter asked.  I didn't answer.

My daughter and I made our purchases and headed out the door.  As we walked out, yet another man stopped us asking for money.  I gave him the same pat answer and continued walking to my car.  As I rounded the corner to where my car was parked, the tired girl was standing in the shade.  She held my eyes and she said, "Have a good day, Ma'am.  God bless you."

I got in my car and drove home feeling overwhelmed with guilt.  Guilt for not helping.  Guilt for not extending my dollars to these people, especially once I realized that I, who never carries cash, had a $5 bill in my purse I'd forgotten I had.  Guilt for not following Matthew 5:42. 

A few months ago, my husband and I were at Arco filling up my car.  A lady approached us and said, "God bless you ma'am but we've run out of gas and could use some money to help us get home." 

My husband said, "What pump are you on?"

"9," she said.

He went inside and put $10 on pump number 9 while I paid at the pump for our gas.  While walking back to our car another guy walked up with the same predicament.  Ken told him he'd already given money to the other lady and the guy retorted, "She been here all afternoon.  She's had enough gas," and stormed off.

My husband just kind of shook his head at the man's indignation and we went on with our evening.  A couple weeks back while getting gas with my mom, the same lady came up and asked me the same question, the exact same way.

Irritated I said, "Sorry, I don't have any money for you this time" and without batting an eye she just moved on the next car.  Apparently, this was a full time gig for her.

Normally, I have a "give to everyone and let God sort out their motives" kind of philosophy about pan handling.  However, lately, I'm so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of hard luck stories I'm bombarded with that I've stopped giving on the spot entirely.  It's instances like the one above where they're just using your money or donation of gas so they can keep their money to buy booze and cigarettes.  Is this the case always?  No.  But it happens often enough that I don't want to just fork over money anymore.  And it really irritated me that God is used as a manipulation ploy once my car stickers or necklace is spotted.

I don't want to be bamboozled, but I also don't want to feel those pangs of guilt because I am a "have" and they are a "have not."  Most of us are one lay off, one serious illness, one major disaster away from being in or close to a similar situation. 

My question to you, especially my Christian brethren, is how do you personally handle these situations?  Go with your gut on who gets helped?  Let the Spirit lead? What do you interpret the Bible to say about how we should act in these situations?

Please feel free to comment here or Facebook.  I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this matter and how other folks handle this sort of thing...