Why ask God to do what you can do yourself?

“God love her,” echoed throughout the office as an emaciated woman dodged traffic and stopped to converse with the paper bag she recovered from the gutter on the other side of the street.

“She’s probably cussing it for being empty,” one said with a laugh.

“Or thinks it’s an old friend,” another snorted.

God love her because nobody else does? God love her so we don’t have to? God love her for breaking the monotony of our day? Exactly what do people mean when they make that public request?

The question haunts me enough to carefully to consider each situation in which I hear the phrase. I’ve decided that the speaker usually means, “I’m going to use God’s name while I laugh at this unfortunate person so you'll think I'm a compassionate, religious person instead of seeing that I'm a jerk." If I were a religious person, I’d say it borders on blasphemy. Since I'm not, I'll say it reeks of dishonesty.

Since “God love her” is a statement instead of a question, no response is required. However, I think it deserves either a request for clarification, or a follow-up statement. I plan to start asking the speaker what he expects from me since he made the statement in my presence. Regardless of the explanation, I believe my response will be the same. God already loves her enough to have sent you here to love and help her. Why ask God to do what you can do yourself?