This morning, I went to the Olympic Stadium to run like I have for many mornings this month, but today I saw something that saddened me. I was doing a stair workout and when I was at the bottom of the steps, just to the outside of the stadium, I saw a mother with two children. One child, she was holding and the other was walking along behind her. Neither child had any clothes on. The small one was probably about 2 and the other maybe 3 years old. The mother didn’t have shoes on and the child following her was crying. This scene was enough to make me stop in my tracks and just stare for a moment, wondering what I could do. Should I take off my tank top and give it to the 3-year-old? Should I take off my shoes and give them to the mother?
I reasoned to myself why neither option would be appropriate. If I took off my shirt, though I wore a sports bra underneath, I would be an even bigger spectacle than I already was in a foreign country where only showing your shoulders or knees is considered scandalous. If I took my shoes off and gave them to her, they would most likely be too big (these women are tiny), plus, I seldom see Camai people wear shoes that cover their feet. They only wear flip flops and I didn’t have mine with me to give.
So after reasoning to myself why I had no way of helping this poor mother, I continued with my workout. But I didn’t leave the stadium today un-impacted. I know what it says in the Bible. I know what Jesus says. He says we should give people clothing if they are naked. If we don’t have extra clothes with us, we should give them the clothes off of our back, even at the cost of becoming a spectacle. Jesus was a spectacle all his life and that didn’t stop him from helping people. I know I could have done something for this woman, the truth is that I just didn’t want to interrupt my morning run or make my morning more complicated than I had planned on.
Right now I am reading the book “Same Kind of Different As Me” and it speaks volumes about going out of your way to help the less-fortunate, and sincerely helping them, loving them like Jesus loves us. It’s a true story, so I know there are people in the world who go out of their way, unexpectedly sometimes, to help other people. People who may not even be nice to them. I guess I have a lot of growing to do.
