Sometimes it can be a hard conversation. People have mixed emotions about it. I rarely meet people who have the same opinion on it. Even Christians don't seem to agree…
The other day one of my teammates came to me with a story. For the sake of her privacy, I will call her Lecrae. As she told the story, she started to cry. The story starts off with a group of girls going to grab some pizza for dinner. When they began the walk, they realized they would have to cross a bridge over the highway because of how bad traffic was. They began up the stairs when all of the sudden Lecrae realized that a small old lady was sitting by herself. It seemed as if she had not bathed in a minute* and that she probably did not even have a place to rest her head at night. Lecrae thought to herself… what am I doing? I am a person who is seeking after being like Jesus yet I am going to walk right by someone who is need.
How many times have you been in this situation and you just keep walking along like you do not even see the person? Lets be real… it probably has already happened to you today at least once.
Lecrae ended up walking right past and went to have dinner however she could not get this woman off her mind. One of the other girls, who went with them to dinner, took the initiative to order food but not eat it. She already had in her mind that even though she could not give money because she literally had none to give.. She wanted to bless the woman in someway.
Would you give up a meal so that someone else could eat? Be honest. If you had the chance today, did you?
The story ends with Lecrae and the other girl having a great conversation with this older lady. They informed her that they had no money to give but she did not care. She was so excited that some gringos in her country would actually stop and care to see how she was. The older lady ended up being a evangelical christian, who loved just talking about The Lord all the time! She had fallen on hard times but she knew that she was still loved by her Father.
That one conversation gave hope. Would you be willing to have a conversation with someone to just brighten their spirits.Yes I know.. It can get tricky. More times than not they will ask for money or food but try to look past that. Honestly, this is one of the moments when I encourage you to look beyond you and actually ask WWJD.
One last question:
Would you love me if I was homeless? If I had fallen on hard times and had no one to lean upon. God is bringing a different point of view to my thinking. What if it was one of my/ your family members, friends, or myself? What would I do? What would you do? Just do it.
The story took place in El Salvador.
*My definition of minute is different than most.. A minute does not actually have a definitive time span in my book.
