Developing the cynic in me

This is the last week...partial week, actually...that I'm holding down the fort, so to speak. The senior pastor returns Thursday. I haven't had many people contact the church looking for financial assistance this time around. The few I did, I ended up challenging or regretfully declining assistance (for good reasons, trust me). The longer I'm here the more the stories start sounding familiar, and the more familiar I am with how things work and don't work.

So when someone asks for help restoring utility service and cites an amount that is obviously several months' worth, I wonder what's going on. And whether our help will merely enable wrong behavior. Three years ago I probably would be bending over backwards to try to help.

Many of the requests we get are for gas "vouchers." We've an arrangement with a local service station whereby we send people who need gas (we call ahead). When we moved up here, ten bucks would give you half a tank of gas. Nowadays, it doesn't give one alot. But our pockets aren't any deeper just because costs are up.

And we still must remain good stewards of the funds people entrust to the church for benevolence help. Not everyone who asks for help, needs the help they've asked for.