You may learn from this too...

Yesterday at work we had a lady and her 10-year-old girl walk in to our office. She claimed she was trying to raise money to fix her car and buy food for her grandkids. Needles to say my first impressions were here we go with another scam. She continued with her story about her grandson who has cancer and how down on her luck she was. Our secretary came into the office that I share with 2 other people and asked if we wanted to help her out. One lady gave a couple of bucks and I threw in a few. Now stay with me, I’m not telling this story to toot my own horn. Anyway, after the lady left, the secretary came back in my office and said she has a really hard time giving money to people like that. They’re going to buy cigarettes and booze… you know the spill. All I could think of to say in reply is “what comes around goes around, and if she was scamming us, she’ll pay for it later.” What a dumb thing to say. After reflecting on the situation and realizing I had missed the perfect opportunity to witness to someone, I thought I’d pass this along.

What I should have said is this: “You know, I go to church and what we believe as Christians, is when someone asks for help, we’re supposed to help, not judge them by what we think they are. I too have those same first impressions as everyone else, and probably fail with the task of not judging on first impressions more than most. I’m human too.”

The next time I see someone in need I’ll try to remember this passage:

Luke 10:33-35
33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

God bless,
Bill