Thursday, August 28, 2008

Leeches and Misers

It used to be that my town was devoid of panhandlers, but in recent years it seems that more and more street corners are sprouting people dressed shabbily and looking hungry, asking for handouts. Whereas I believe I need to be more ready to give of my means to the needy, I've never been convinced that these people are anything but shams, hoaxing hundreds of dollars a day out of the hands of hard-working, productive people. It was these panhandlers and their relationship to me whom I thought of when I read this passage last night from Proverbs 30:15a:
The leech has two daughters: Give, Give.
It was those same panhandlers, and my relationship to them however, whom I thought of when I read this passage a night or two before from Proverbs 28:27:
The one who gives to the poor
will not be in need,
but one who turns his eyes away
will receive many curses.

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