I remember an experience I had years ago.
I had missed the staff bus one morning and resorted to taking the public bus to work. As I took my seat just behind the bus driver, I observed the lady beside me had his attention as she whispered into his ears. Instantly, I knew she didn’t have up to the fare on her and the bus driver nodded in the affirmative to her request as he drove on.
After a few miles, she moved closer to me and whispered in question to see if I had enough call credit as according to her "she needed to place a call to her boss to inform him she was running late for work".
Before this, my phone was held out, and on the display was my account balance. I felt she probably saw the balance and to her request, I nodded in the negative leaving her to interpret it as either I was dumb or that I was not willing to share my call credit.
I took some minutes to reflect on her request and to check if I felt any guilt. I asked myself did I actually just lie to this lady. As I pondered on my action and inaction, I realized the truth. I just didn’t feel safe giving out my phone to someone I didn’t know. I wondered if by giving her my phone and she called someone from my line if that could be used for anything dubious or fraudulent. The issue wasn’t the call credit but the security involved. I kept on thinking maybe this was another means deployed by scammers. I then wished I had some physical call credit or something of the sort to give instead.
As I kept thinking and pondering, she got her request granted by another passenger and that got me thinking some more. Was there a need to be that cautious? Was the “Samaritan” passenger unguarded? What happened to "love our neighbors (as ourselves)"?
Should I have simply responded from a place of love or was it okay to have been guarded?
PS: From My Archive
Hmmmm...as much as I love to help others when the need arise.I help only when am led o.
In the scenario you painted, what matters is God sees your heart not that you turned her down from a place of wickedness("I want to be mean"), you did from the place of "safety first" even the bible encourages the application of wisdom.
Everyday the world we live in gets complicated because of the evil that people do to others. That has made people more cautious about helping others, especially strangers.
We cannot just throw caution to the wind because some of these security threats are real. Some have gotten into trouble by just responding to a simple call for help by a stranger.
In my opinion, allow the Holy Spirit guide you.
And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours]. Philippians 4:7.