Modern-day beggars can be choosers

There were no beggars in my village, when I was growing up. It was in the train, as my mum and I were travelling to Port Harcourt, that I saw them for the first time. Some of them, in soliciting for sympathy, showed us the ailing parts of their body without uttering a word. Some, to attract attention, sang sympathetic songs about their situation, while others narrated to us how the unfortunate predicament happened to them. In demonstration of sympathy, some passengers gave them money, especially, women, but some people did not care.
In all my train’s journeys to Port Harcourt and Aba, I never met a beggar I knew. I wondered! I was surprised also that there were no beggars in my village. I was told later that self-pride would not allow the needy people in my village, who should have been soliciting for help, from doing so. I heard that they were begging outside our village, where they were not known. Some family members would regard it as a disgrace, not only for their relative, but also for their entire family, though they might not be providing for them. Till today, begging is associated with laziness. That could explain the reason people might want to do it far away from the prying eyes. That meant that while Uncle is a beggar in certain place, he would want to put off the garb in any place he feels he is well-known or when he sees someone that knows him.
I was taught in my primary school day that a beggar has no choice. Actually, the correct English expression as I came to learn much later is, a beggar cannot be a chooser as he lives on the benevolence of the members of the public. What he is given varies according to his immediate need and circumstance. It depends also on what the people around him could afford. It could be: money, raw food, leftovers, clothes; either new or fairly used. It could also be: house rent, payment of his children’s school fees, fees for apprenticeship of a profession, et cetera. What is important is, at the end of the day his need is met either in part or totally.
But sometimes, today, people may not wait until someone makes a request before giving things to him. Someone may feel compelled to meet a need in someone’s life and may extend his hand of benevolence to him. But it is not uncommon to see the ‘needy’ person reject, out of pride, any form of assistance he did not request for. It may be that the two of them or their parents, might have quarreled in the past and exchanged boastful words. This explains why beggars were not common in most villages in the distant past.
It is possible for a beggar to love his begging business. I wrote about this in this column many years ago, how our boss, Steve Evuruocha, offered a job to a beggar and he rejected it on the grounds that he would be making more money as a beggar. Apostles Peter and John met a lame man, as Dr. Luke recorded in Acts 3:2-8. He requested for money, not healing, apparently so that he could continue with his begging business. For some people, especially lazy ones, begging, like prostitution, is a cheap way of making money. But Wisdom reveals that it is better to teach someone how to catch fish than to give him fish on regular basis. That was what Apostle Peter did. He ignored the lame man’s request and healed him. The man did something praiseworthy. He joined the brethren in fellowship immediately.
That was a stark contrast to what Bartimaemus, the blind beggar did – Mark 10:46-52. His request to the Lord Jesus was that He should have mercy on him. The Lord, wanting him to be specific, asked, “What do you want?” He requested that he should be healed so that he would stop begging. The Lord granted his heart’s desire and healed him.
Today, as circumstances seem to have changed with people in various professions, beggars are not left out. While their counterparts in the past were no choosers, it may not be so today. A few weeks ago, my wife and I overheard our driver talking with a woman. We asked him what it was all about though we know that he is very popular. I have told him that if he contests an election, he could win, being a Lagosian and knowing many people. He is also known of them! He told us that the woman was begging him for N1,000. If it were someone that he knows, I would have asked him: ‘Did she mean loaning her?” Seeing that she was a stranger, I felt that she was trying to project her image, by pretending that she belonged to the HIE (High Income Echelon) of the society but had just run short of cash.
Our driver informed us strangely that it was not so, asserting that she was a beggar on mission field. She might have gone to Baba for spiritual help, and he might have sent her on a begging spree. Her mandate, he said, could be to collect N1, 000, no more and no less, from specific number of people, say, four or seven. For me, such kind of beggars like the woman, are choosers. That’s why one could notice easily their pride and unserious nature in their plea. Can you see the wickedness of Satan in sending out well-known people, such as a bank manager on begging spree? The person has to do it to live. But the way and manner he would carry out Baba’s assignment would differ from the way and manner a true beggar will.
One may wonder why Baba should send such a high profile personality on that type of venture. We should realize that Satan delights in disgracing his servants. He can tell a prominent man to strip naked at night and be engaged in walking barefooted from his house in Ikoyi to Yaba for seven nights. The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, told us that His yoke is easy and burden light. Satan’s purpose may be to give power to the person. Sometimes, through newspaper reports, we read about people whose magical powers failed them at the time they need them most to work for them. The police arrest them and, sometimes, along with the Baba who allegedly ‘fortified’ them with fetish powers. At the end, they and Baba are jailed!
The consequences upon a person who gave money to a beggar on a mission could be disastrous. It could lead to loss of life, business, position, wealth, et cetera. But the fear of what might happen to us if we listen to such a beggar and give him the money he requests from us, should not prompt us to ignore the plight of genuine beggars. While it may be true that some people are in this type of mission, it is not true that everyone requesting a specified amount of money is Baba’s servant. Like I noted somewhere in this article, pride may be the inducing factor, though things are tough with them at home. Let us play our part, appreciate that God owns us, and all that we have.
For a child of God, there is nothing to fear since God has declared, “No weapon fashioned against you shall prosper”(Isaiah 54:17). He said also that the sun shall not smite us by day or the moon by night. God warns also those who delight in bringing evil on His children to desist from it. “Touch not Mine anointed and do My prophets no harm,” He said in Psalm 105:15.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0909 041 9057; [email protected]