One small act of kindness can make a huge difference

One small act of kindness can make a huge difference

One small act of kindness can make a huge difference

We pass hundreds of people on an average day. Sometimes, we even stop to notice them. Not bodies milling about, but human beings.

With feelings and challenges and triumphs.

The sad truth is we don’t like to see the homeless. It makes us uncomfortable.  If you give a homeless man a burger…he might just want a smile to go with it.

A man caught my eye in a parking lot. Haggard, wearing a dark green sweatshirt with a gigantic tear at one elbow. Worn cotton, fluttering in the wind as he rode his beat-up bicycle past the cars.

A basket was tied to the handlebars, full. Dirty pants, giving full disclosure of the thin frame pedaling in the heat.

I tried to put him out of my mind. Not because I didn’t care about him, but because I DID.

And I felt helpless. If God would show me how to help him, if I could see him again and have an opportunity…

I drove into the McDonalds parking lot, swinging around the building into the drive-through. There he was!

Coasting past the lined spaces, staring into the windows. Here was my chance.

To do something. The only thing I knew to do.

The simple act of offering

I quickly made a U-turn, finding him parking his bike in the bushes across the lot. Rolling down my windows, I took a deep, scared breath and smiled.

“Good morning, can I buy your lunch today?”

He leaned towards my open passenger window, his filthy ball cap keeping long stringy hair just out of his eyes. “YES”.

“A coke. Large. A cheeseburger?”

“Sure, you wait here and I’ll go through the drive-through”.

I ordered us lunch, with a side of dismay.

Did I offend him, telling him to wait in the bushes? I was trying to make it easy. But did I make him feel less somehow in the process?

I could have invited him in to eat with me. I didn’t.

What is the right thing to do to help the homeless?

This is always a struggle. I mean, he IS a strange man. I don’t just go alone places with strange men. Duh.

It is a fine line, isn’t it? This desire to be safe in a world of evil. This conflicting desire to do right and see people with Jesus’ eyes. A fine line, one difficult to see.

I pulled up to him and rolled down my window. Him leaning from foot to foot by his bicycle. Me in my air-conditioned car.

Handing him his food, I asked his name. He waited for a second, “John”, he said cautiously.

Suspiciously.

“John, I will pray for you today.”  I smiled and drove away. Not wanting him to feel uncomfortable.

Feeling like a moron, wishing I had better words. With teary eyes, I contemplated his life.

Struck with this powerful truth: we love to comfort ourselves with God’s promises in Jeremiah. He knows the plans He has for us…so many promises.

I am here today to speak on John’s behalf. God has promises for THIS man. Before he was born, John was knit together in his mother’s womb. God had plans for his life! He was, and is, precious to our Creator!

Did someone hold John gently as a child? Show him cruelty? Does anyone pace the floors at night wondering if he is safe, or has he been forgotten?

How quick society is to judge the homeless

To tell the homeless to GET A JOB, GET A LIFE. As if it was that easy. As if we don’t need a permanent mailing address and countless other details.

I am well aware that people work the system. Yet, does that give us the clear conscious to turn our back on those down and out? I don’t have the answers.

One thing is for certain.

 We don’t need to have the correct words to say when we see the ugly, glaring face of desperation. 

We can choose to start by simply speaking. To trust God to fill in the rest.

God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking–it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you (Matthew 10:19-20 NLT)

postsignature

Resources to help the homeless:

Related Posts:

Similar Posts