Many Christians believe that because they tithe to the church they are excused from personal acts of kindness towards others, thinking that it is the church’s duty to handle such matters. Many expect the leadership to perform all of the acts of benevolence for them. This is a serious misconception. E ach church member should continually ask God to use him/her to help someone in a special way. 
Begin exercising your faith in a way that will help someone personally: bring another family into your home, feed or find shelter for someone, donate your time to an important charity, or provide for someone’s need out of your own need. Christians can find wonderful spiritual rewards from being “doers of the Word and not hearers only.”1 Consider the impact if every church member, at least once a month, helped at least one family in their community. Keep in mind that occasionally you many find someone who is ungrateful or the person you are helping is difficult to work with, but continue on. We should not let an occasional bad experience deter us from helping others in our giving process.
Consider this particular event that happened in the early 80’s long before we journeyed to Kansas and how it teaches the need to look past those that may use or abuse our kindness. This event transpired while I was managing my father’s funeral home. One evening I attended a funeral director’s conference in New Orleans along with a number of my directors. On the way home the first evening we stopped and picked up a hitchhiker. He piled into the car along side of my directors. After our casual introductions, he began to feed us a hard luck story about how his mother was dying in Florida and how he needed help to get there. Feeling he was being honest, when we arrived in Biloxi, I gave him some cash and bought him a bus ticket to his Florida destination.
The next morning the agent at the bus station called the funeral home and said the man had cashed in the ticket and was laughing about taking advantaging of us. I felt like a fool for being used, and it became a joke among the employees and directors. The next day, I again attended the convention in New Orleans, this time by myself. It was after dark before I headed back to Biloxi. While driving on I-10 out of New Orleans, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a young man walking along the side of the Interstate with his head down. He was not even attempting to hitchhike for cars to pick him up. However, since it was dark, I felt I should help and give the young man a ride. In my mind the previous days experiences were rushing through my thoughts, yet I felt compelled to stop. When this young man got into the car, he was completely broken. He was weeping and explaining how he was at the very end in himself and that I had saved his life by picking him up. He had no money, was far from home, and was broken before God and man. We visited during the trip back to Biloxi, and I assured him that I would help in some way. He kept pouring out his heart, and I knew that I had picked up a “prodigal son” on his way back home. Yes! I bought him a ticket to his destination in Florida and gave him some money for food to help along the way. The terminal did not call me later to inform me that he had cashed in his ticket. And I will say, I have never met anyone so grateful in all of my life for what I did for him. I feel that I literally saved a life that evening.
As I looked back upon this episode I realized that had I become embittered because of the previous evening and shut off my mercy, I would have been little help to the LORD on the evening when He really needed me the most. The lesson in all of this is that sometimes Satan will try to steal our blessing by sending a phony our way first. Had I become hardened after the first hiker’s fraud, I would have missed the one who really needed my help. The little money I was out and the embarrassment I suffered from the first episode meant nothing to me, but to be able to truly help a man in need was without doubt a privilege and honor.