Have you ever had an 'epic fail' moment?
Seems I have developed a steady flow.
Friday we were driving in our town. We came to a stop light that was red. Our our left window we see a very familiar sight. A man standing holding a card board sign that reads 'Everything lost in fire. Please help. God Bless You!'
This gentlemen is a fixture in this location. I am going to be honest and admit that I look at this man and I have my questions. He looks fit and able to work. Why doesn't he? His clothes are not shabby. He seems clean and strong. He doesn't look like he has been sleeping on the street.
All of these things are racing through your mind in that minute or two you are sitting at the red light.
He is a hussler. The sign is not true. This is an easy way for him to make some money. Tugging on the heart strings of people passing by.
Yet, what if he is not? What if the sign is true? What if he isn't aware of the organizations that are there to help him?
On this particular meeting between us and the cardboard sign man, our children were with us.
My 6 year old son staring out the window at this man. The questions come.
'What does it say mommy?'
My 7 year old, ' He had a fire?'
We work hard trying to teach our children to love like Jesus.
That means to be kind to everyone, and to help others.
No matter what this man's truth is, am I to judge?
What do you do with this?
My husband and I exchange a few glances. We had cash. There were two things stopping us from rolling down the window and helping.
#1 Our children's safety. How were we to know what this man would do had we opened our car window to him. Did he have a gun? Would he have harmed us? Harmed my kids?
#2 The light turned green.
We were ready. Ready to help this man. Was it God's protection that turned the light green and we drove away.
Is it okay to just pray for this man rather than to risk our safety to give him money?
I am going to have to say YES. In this situation I believe it happened as it should have.
Had my husband or I been alone, perhaps we would have given him money. Perhaps he would have harmed us? Perhaps he would have been very greatful.
These are moments that it is very hard to be a Believer. Perhaps it was wise decision and not an epic fail. Yet, I think the epic fail in this was how do you explain these things of this messy messy world to your children.
Are there really situations where you have to choose to help a man on the street holding a cardboard sign?
We go to a concert the very next night. We here a song (I've included the link) and it mentions this VERY thing!
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