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Taiwan has a lot of homeless people. Sadly, that’s true anywhere in the world. But in Taiwan, it’s… interesting.
Monks walk the streets, dressed in monk garb from ancient Chinese culture, shaved heads, carrying money boxes, wearing painful expressions on their faces, and beg cars at traffic lights for money.
One day, someone had too much free time on her hands and decided to follow the street monks. As it turns out, they come from all over the city. And, the particular monk she followed was returning to a business center. Yes, along with several other “monks” who brought in their collection, paid a “tip-out” to a money collector, donned their toupees, and drove home in their Benz’s and BMW’s. They weren’t monks at all.
It’s funny, another local homeless person—of course, everyone in the six-million person city knows him—runs around, doesn’t say anything, holds out his hand and motions that he’s hungry… But he always has a nice hair cut and wears plain, clean clothes… makes you wonder…
How many people in the world have problems because they want to have problems? Maybe it would be better to ask, How many friends do you have, who have problems, because they want to have problems?
I wouldn’t presume to answer for you, nor is there a comprehensive tally, showing how many people inflict themselves with problems they love complaining about. Many problems are real and I try to follow the model of the Good Samaritan, as best as I can, anyway. But should we always try to help people?
California doesn’t think so. It’s now illegal for Christian Psychotherapists to give “treatment” to homosexuals. Not that I’ve joined the gay agenda, and not to hate on the gay community, but, strictly speaking for Christians… Why try to “treat” homosexuality anyways? Moreover, if homosexuality is a “sin-related” issue (sin does not necessarily blaming anyone), then the solution is unconditional love and the work of Jesus Christ at the Cross, not therapy. We all know that therapy is often times a code word for harassment. Don’t Christians believe that choice relates to sexual orientation anyways? Then only talk to people who want to hear you and leave everyone else alone to make their own “choices”.
Another lady, admittedly obese, a news anchor, was told she was fat by an email bully who rarely watches her on TV. Look, dude, leave the poor lady alone. It’s fine to keep your weight down. It’s great to eat healthy. I am a health nutcase myself and I pride my six-pack in my early 30′s. But I don’t go around, telling people, “You should lose weight,” nor do I try to pass laws regulating grease and soda <cough… choke… New York… ahem…>. Though, I do have a hard time with fat people telling us we should pray and fast more… Speaking of Kansas City…
How many people have been hurt by wonderful ministries—all because someone in the ministry tried to help someone else who didn’t want help? The dirty little secret about not wanting help is that people who complain about their problems usually don’t want help, they just want to complain. If you take away their problems, you take away their excuse to complain. Then, they’ll hate you.
Whether you’re into health kicks or Bible study, whether you are concerned about sexual re-orientation or you feel Judas Iscariot’s call to help all of the homeless… Maybe you’re wrong, maybe they’re wrong, maybe we’re all wrong, maybe we’re all right… But don’t help the poor souls who don’t want help. They’ve already got enough problems. And if you’ve got problems you don’t want help with, it’s probably best to keep them to yourself, lest someone use your complaining as an excuse to harass you with therapy.
