Are We Not All Beggars?

 In the summer of 1992, I returned from New York City to my home in Sandy, UT.  In the months following my return, I decided to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I received my mission call to serve in Auckland, New Zealand. My departure date was set for January 1993. And so, I was home in Utah for the biting rocky mountain winter. 

Trying to live up to my desire to serve our fellowman, I thought I would be clever and deliver a few blankets and tooth brushes to the homeless under the 4th street viaduct in downtown Salt Lake City. I drove to Salt Lake City in my dad's green Ford Bronco. I was a 27 year old woman, going to the 4th street viaduct, by myself--possibly noble, but not smart. I arrived and successfully delivered the goods and made my way back to the Bronco. I got in the truck and turned the ignition-it sputtered but did not start. I tried again. Same results. Becoming more and more frantic, I kept trying to turn over the engine, a man approached my window. "Holy Cow!" I thought, "I have to get this thing working!" He tapped on the window. I pretended not to see him. He tapped again. I had to acknowledge him. I hesitantly rolled down the window. He asked if I had jumper cables. I told him, no. He walked over to the street and flagged down a car.  He got a car to stop and asked the driver for cables. The homeless man returned to my truck and told me to pop the hood. He hooked up the cables to the batteries in each car. The homeless man asked me to start the engine... it worked!. Hall-e-stinkin'-lu-jah! Incredibly humbled, I thanked the man. As I drove away, I reflected on how I thought I was being the helpful one- giving to others of my abundance. But in reality, this man, living on the streets, having no resources- found a way to help me. In that moment, He was my Savior. "For behold, are we not all beggars ? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have..." Mosiah 4:19

Last night, we climbed into our 1999 Plymouth Voyager and drove to San Jose to see the lights at Christmas in the Park and to visit the Giving Machine. The Giving Machine is a unique vending machine where individuals can purchase items such as: water for an individual for a year, polio vaccines, a basketball or a meal to be delivered to those in need. On our way down to San Jose, I was thinking, "How come some individuals are born with access to clean water and others are not?" I don't know the answer, but I do know that those of us that do have access to having our needs met (including spiritual and emotional needs) have a responsibility to care for those that do not.

In preparing to write this entry, I read an address by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the same title: "Are We Not All Beggars?" My words are just a faint echo of his and others. 

"Given the monumental challenge of addressing inequity in the world, what can one man or woman do? The Master Himself offered an answer. When, prior to His betrayal and Crucifixion, Mary anointed Jesus’s head with an expensive burial ointment, Judas Iscariot protested this extravagance and “murmured against her.” Jesus said:

“Why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work. …

“She hath done what she could.”

“She hath done what she could”! What a succinct formula! A journalist once questioned Mother Teresa of Calcutta about her hopeless task of rescuing the destitute in that city. He said that, statistically speaking, she was accomplishing absolutely nothing. This remarkable little woman shot back that her work was about love, not statistics. Notwithstanding the staggering number beyond her reach, she said she could keep the commandment to love God and her neighbor by serving those within her reach with whatever resources she had."

In this new year, I want to serve like the homeless man that flagged down a car to help me and love as Mary did, anointing the Savior. I want to do what I can and wrought a good work.