Homeless people

There is an inner conflict that comes for many people who try to follow Christ when they see someone on the street asking for money.  How can we know if they really need the help?  Many people are professional beggars and actually live in nice houses.  If they are destitute, how do we know they will use the money to help themselves instead of on alcohol or other destructive and addicting substances?  Christ set an example of helping those in need, but he was able to see a person's heart.  We cannot always do so.

It appears that there was a similar problem of people trying to live off others' generosity in Thessalonica among the early Christians.  Paul, in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, mentioned that he had heard that some there were not working at all.  He directs the true followers of Christ that 'if any would not work, neither should he eat' (2 Thes 3:10).  Here is our guide: we should always try to support ourselves to the best of our ability.  We should work for our bread.

This is a familiar idea, but what of giving to those who maybe aren't working?  Does this mean we should leave them out in the cold?  Paul goes on to say this:

"For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.  Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
"But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing." (verses 11-13) 

 That last line gives us the direction we have been seeking: "be not weary in well doing."  God wants us to give without regard to whether we are giving too much.  We do not know the heart because we are not called to be the judges of the heart.  We know what we are required to do and we teach it, but we do not pass final judgement.  We can know that God will consecrate our efforts if we give with the intent to do good.

Natural Abilities

The differences between people amaze me.  When I look at people who are great at one subject, but cannot grasp a different subject for the life of them, and then I turn around and see people who are just the reverse of that, it makes me wonder what it is about our brains and our bodies that causes that.  For example, a lot of people do not like math.  They may be fabulous pianists or historians, but something about math just doesn't click for them.  Perhaps they don't grasp it particularly well, or they don't get the point of it.  For some reason they just don't like it.  Why do other people like math?  What is it about their brains that allows them to just pick it up and do it?  Then again, there are some people who can do math, but hate English.  What happened in their early development to cause this in them?

Now, let me clarify myself a bit here.  I believe that a lot of the dislike for math or science, or any other subject, really, comes from the way that subject is taught to the person.  That is one of the biggest reasons I want to be a teacher.  I want to be able to portray some joy in my subject to my students so that they can learn to better live with, if not like, a hard subject.  The thing I am trying to say here is that I believe people are born with certain aptitudes, or talents.  While we do not have to allow ourselves to be limited by it, everyone has their own strengths and their own weaknesses.  Something has to cause that, physically, or mentally; something about how our bodies form changes what natural abilities we begin with.  We do not start on the same ground.

I believe that God knew us before we were born, and he shaped our bodies and minds to the beings we were before we came into the world.  Somehow we developed abilities and knowledge in that time before, and our natural abilities reflect that.  I have found that many times God works through natural means, however, and I wonder what the physical differences are that he introduces into our brains to give us these natural abilities.

I'm starting to think I should be a neurologist.