Today I went to pick up a book from a Christian Bookstore and walked past a homeless man sitting on the curb right outside. I saw this man and thought to myself, “Wow, he is really smart to sit outside of a Christian bookstore! He probably has gotten a lot of money and food from all the Christians, who enter into this store for the very purpose of finding books that share the secrets of growing your faith and serving God better.”
I decided He was a smart homeless man with a good tactic, and drove way. I was in a rush to meet a friend and I did not have time to evaluate my responsibility to serve this man. As a drove further away, I was sensing the Lord directing me to buy this man some hotdogs at the Sheetz right next door. I uttered a sense of frustration but made a decision to be obedient.
I bought three hotdogs, an apple and a bottle of water. As I drove back to the homeless man, I thought to myself, “Okay God, are you happy?” and I parked my car in a hurry to deliver the food and quickly be on my way. I walked over to the man and asked him if he was having a nice day. No response. I said that I thought he might be hungry and handed him the bag of food. I watched him open it and with a face of disgust he yelled at me “You could have at least gotten me a F@#&! pizza” as he threw the bag at me and returned to stare at the ground.
Walking back to my car with that familiar hot red face of embarrassment and frustration, I held back the tears that were welling up in my eyes. I sat in my car ANGRY that I had driven back to this man, that I had spent money buying food that was now on the ground, and made myself late to a meeting with a friend. As I hurried to leave the parking lot and forget about this ungrateful man, I heard God utter to my heart, “it’s not about the response, it’s about the obedience”.
As I am about to travel the world on this mission, a lot of fears enter my mind about almost every aspect of this trip. What scares me more than the potential danger, lice, conflicts with teammates, crime and persecution, though, is the fear of traveling the world and not being effective in reaching people for the Gospel. Do I believe and trust that the Lord will allow this to happen? YES! But what God showed me today, was that even if every single single person throws the gospel back at our face and rejects what we have brought them, it’s not about their response, it’s about my obedience!
I know that when I woke up this morning, God’s biggest plan was for me to learn a lesson about obedience, and I smile because He used three hotdogs and an apple.
