{"id":19605,"date":"2024-07-24T01:24:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T07:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/?post_type=blog&p=19605"},"modified":"2024-07-23T07:58:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T13:58:30","slug":"im-a-beggar-and-you-are-too","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/im-a-beggar-and-you-are-too\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a Beggar, and You Are, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We are all beggars.”<\/p>\n

Those were Martin Luther’s last words right before he died.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not entirely sure what Luther meant by that, as he never actually got a chance to explain himself. But I get the sense that he wanted all of us to remember that equally, we’re all nothing without the Lord.<\/p>\n

And, yeah, sure, we all know that. We know the Lord loves us all, and He is our strength, and so on and so forth. You\u2019ve heard it a thousand times. But what would it look like to actually live that way? What would it look like to carry Luther\u2019s last words with us every single day?<\/p>\n

Practically, maybe for some that means giving food to those in need. For others, maybe it\u2019s donating time to a homeless shelter. But more than anything else, I think it\u2019s a mindset.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a foundational truth that anyone who claims to know Christ should sing as an anthem \u2014 because it’s what Jesus was all about.<\/p>\n

If we believe that all we have, all we think, and all we do is essentially out of the Lord\u2019s grace and mercy \u2014 aren\u2019t we beggars anyways? Aren\u2019t we relying on God for every breath we take?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not about to delve into a debate on what to do when you walk past someone who is homeless on the street. Because, honestly, whether you give money or not, that\u2019s not the point. Because there’s something deeper.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a mentality of equality.<\/p>\n

Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for people who persecute us (Matthew 5:44<\/a>). He says not to tell everybody when we do something great (Matthew 6:1-2<\/a>) and not to worry about what you will eat or drink (Matthew 6:25<\/a>). Jesus valued small, faithful gestures and prayers over loud, eloquent ones (Matthew 6:5-8<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Jesus illustrated an upside-down ideology \u2014 doing what doesn\u2019t make sense, doing what isn\u2019t easy, asking the hard questions and putting hands and feet on the words love<\/em> and respect<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When I think of Luther\u2019s last words, I\u2019m reminded of my big brother, who’s often homeless<\/a>, a beggar.<\/p>\n

He struggles with addiction. In May, I was able to reconnect with him, after being apart for many years. When my husband and I were eating lunch with him, he said something that really stuck with me: \u201cTalking with you guys has been the first normal conversation I\u2019ve had in a really long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, seeing my big brother living on the streets and battling addiction was excruciating. But I didn\u2019t want to show pity on him and try to \u201csave” him.<\/p>\n

It would have been easy for me to put on a savior complex, say a shallow prayer with him, give him a meal and a few bucks and go on my way, all while patting myself on the back because of my \u201cChristlikeness.”<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t do that, and neither did my husband, Mike. We talked to my brother. We listened to him. We talked about social issues, politics, international relations, literature, religion and family. We asked him questions and gave him room to respond.<\/p>\n

Please understand, I\u2019m not writing this for people to pity my brother or applaud my husband and me for showing respect to my brother.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sharing this because I need to be reminded that my brother and I, we\u2019re not too different.<\/p>\n

Every breath we both take is a reminder of our mortality. Every inhale and exhale is by the grace of God. Whether my brother recognizes that isn\u2019t the point. Rather, it’s about whether or not I understand that, and what I do with it.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2018 Dani Fitzgerald Brown. All rights reserved.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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