God's Smuggler

by Brother Andrew

All around me were the dirty gray streets of Patrick. Litter blew across the cobblestones. The September air was already raw. Before I had gone five blocks I was accosted two times by beggars. I gave them all the money I had in my pockets and watched as they moved without pretense toward the nearest pub. I knew that these drifters, begging in the streets of the Glasgow slums, would receive a better income than the missionaries-in-training at the top of the hill. I could not understand why this bothered me so. Was I greedy? I didn’t think so. We had always been poor, and I had never worried about it. What was it then? And suddenly, walking back up the hill toward the school, I had my answer. The question was not one of money at all. What I was worried about was a relationship. At the chocolate factory I trusted Mr. Ringers to pay me in full and on time. Surely I said to myself, if an ordinary factory worker could be financially secure, so could one of God’s workers. I turned through the gate at the school. Above me was the reminder “Have Faith In God.” That was it! It wasn’t that I needed the security of a certain amount of money, it was that I needed the security of a relationship.