I See YOU

One of the things that constantly infuriates my dad’s fiancé is the fact that my dad is always willing to give something away or help someone out. She says that my dad is “too nice” and helps others “too much.” To me, it’s normal. I guess being raised by two parents that were constantly willing to help someone out, I see nothing wrong with this.

My dad’s fiancé on the other hand, finds this extremely frustrating and is constantly giving my dad a hard time about it. But my dad being who he is, just let’s her negativity roll off his back and continues on.

I know my dad helps others because he finds joy in it. He truly enjoys helping others; the look he gets when he tells others: “My God provided so I can help you” is priceless. He gets a high by helping others. He truly understands the meaning of helping the poor and needy.

And me, why do I help others? Because I know how much it means to that person. When I lived in Texas, I don’t know how many times I would wake up, go to work with my belongings in Thomas and didn’t know where I was going to sleep that night. I had families take me into their homes, expecting nothing or very little from me. They gave me a safe, protected and godly place to live.

I learned, very slowly, that God would provide me a place to live and food in my tummy. Over and over again, God would place these people in my life who gave me things with no expectations and with pure motives.

It changed my worldview of giving and receiving.

Today I walked out of Subway carrying my family’s dinner. Out of nowhere, this man came around the corner.

“Hello there! How are you doing today?”
“I’m doing well thank you. How are you?”
“I’m doing good. Doing good. Trying to stay warm. The weather is being weird.”
“It is, isn’t it? Well, have a good night.”

And with that I got into my car and placed my food down. Until then, I hadn’t really looked at the man. But now that I was looking clearly at him, his clothes were cleaned, he was dressed nicely, and he looked put together. But hanging on his back was a backpack and from that plastic bags, paper towels and a Windex bottle. He was homeless, but you never would have guessed it. You could tell that he took pride in his appearance and you could see his joy on his face.

I sat in my car for a minute or so, taking him in. I then opened my door and got out of the car.

“I need to go to McDonald’s to pick up more food. Would you like anything?”
His face lit up. “Sure! That would be great.”
“What would you like? A drink; food?”
“I’m more hungry than thirsty.” He said with a little sadness.

I asked him a few more questions and then I left. I came back a few minutes later with a meal and gave it to him.

“Praise God! Thank you. Thank you so much!”
I smiled at him. “God bless you. Stay safe and warm.”
“I’ll try.”

I watched him as he walked away and I said a prayer for him. My little trip out today was only supposed to be three stops, but it turned into five. I quickly ran into two stores before I picked up the food and I know now that it was a God thing. If I wouldn’t have gone into those stores or if I would have rushed I would not have ran into that man. For some reason God had our paths cross. Some might say that it was for the man’s sake, but I say it was for mine.

I guess I’m more like my dad then I’d like to admit. I help others because I get joy out of it too.

DISCLAIMER: I do not share these stories to gloat or to say how ‘great’ of a Christian that ‘I am’. I share these stories because I believe that God is being given glory when the story is being played out and when it’s told. And I know sometimes it’s hard to help others, especially the homeless, I pray and hope with the telling of my stories that it will encourage people to help others and give people the nudge or push that they need to go out and be God’s hands and feet.