Over the weekend, I got a message out of the blue from an old friend. It said he was down on his luck, was facing financial difficulties, etc. and he was asking me if I could help him out. For as long as I had known him, he had been a pretty reliable guy, but maybe a little frivolous when it came to money and how it should be spent. Let me follow all of this up by saying that I haven't really spoken to him in about five or six years.
Now, given that we haven't spoken in the last half decade, the immediate response to this situation, for most people I would think, would have been to blow it off completely, maybe even be a little angry. Well, going back to the opening two questions, that's not what I did. I immediately thought of ways TO help him out, as opposed to ways NOT to help him out. I started thinking maybe I could let him borrow some money, but thought that may not be the best idea, even though he said he would pay me back. To paraphrase Dave Ramsey, if you loan someone money, it may as well be a gift since you will never see it again. Still, there I was trying to go through my bills and how much money I had extra to maybe try and help him out.
I ended up making the decision to not loan him any money, but did say that I would speak to a few friends in his area to find out if there was any need for help at their business, or if they knew of any opportunities. In this economy, I know that doing that is not necessarily a sure fire way to help out, but I feel the age old parable "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime" rings very true in this situation. Even though we haven't spoken in years, I will still go to bat for this friend, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on helping him out financially, even though I know that at this moment trying to help him land a job may not be the thing he needs right now.
I think that it is interesting that when you have a situation arise such as this, human nature is to try and help out a friend in need. Some might argue that it is not in fact human nature, but that it is the Christian way of living that leads people to do this. I would have to disagree with that argument for one reason. When you look at all of the major religions of the world, they all have an portion of the belief structure that says to help those in need. Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindi, I think we can all agree that when given the opportunity to help out our fellow man, that it is something that needs to be done. You may not be able to help them in the exact way that satisfies their immediate struggle, but you help build them up, so they do not get knocked down as quickly.
I would like to close with a verse from Proverbs. This isn't one that I hold near and dear, in fact I had to google to find one that was fitting, but I feel as though it is highly appropriate for this particular situation:
"Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisors." -- Proverbs 11:14
I know that my friend is not a whole nation, but I do pray that there are many advisors for him in his current time of need.
