The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
but he overthrows the words of the faithless.
–Proverbs 22:12
A small Honda Civic screeches to a stop in front of me. I step back in fear as I stand in an empty parking lot on Thanksgiving evening. The driver rolls down his window. “I’m not from around here,” he says excitedly, “Can you tell me where the homeless are?”
“The homeless?!”
“Yeah, I hear they hang around this mall, but I only found one.” The young man talks as if he is looking for birds or Easter eggs or something, but seems sincere.
I feel a mixture of anger and pity. “If you go west about 5 miles, you will find some homeless people there,” I explain.
“Well, I am headed east and I’ve got bags of warm turkey sandwiches getting cold. I want to deliver them while they’re hot. Any chance there are some who live that direction?” We both stare at each other: me judging him for offering “drive-by help for the homeless,” and him judging me for my judgmental silence.
Proverbs 22:12 compares two types of people: [those who hath] knowledge versus those who speak “the words of the faithless.”
Which of us in this story “has knowledge”? The young driver has warm turkey sandwiches to share with people, but he does not know where they are. My husband and I ate our “turkey” sandwiches (vegan, though they be) at a large table filled with friends. We know where the homeless are but have no turkey sandwiches.
God promises to watch over knowledge, or [those who hath] knowledge. I suspect that neither I nor the driver has it quite right. We each have pieces that are correct. The exchange of glances judges us both correctly. I direct the driver to an area close by where he will, in fact, find people who are homeless. The Drive-By Homeless Helper speeds off in that direction.
And leaves me in a cloud of thoughts.
Will he find them? Will they appreciate the hot turkey sandwiches? What will they do the next day and the next? What can we each do to help answer that question? What can we do together?
There in the middle of the parking lot, in the light of a streetlamp, I pray that God will bless the Drive-By Homeless Helper who speeds off to find the homeless and feed them hot turkey sandwiches. And I pray for myself, that God will increase my own knowledge about how to best help others, even if it is one hot turkey sandwich at a time.
—Carla Park, PhD, is assistant vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.
