Image by Leroy Skalstad from Pixabay
A Homeless Story
It was 4:30am and 21° outside. I sat inside my toasty warm truck on the way to work. As I got off the freeway and pulled up to the light, I saw him standing there. When I asked what he was doing outside at this time of the night, he said, “I got nowhere to go.”
He didn’t have to tell me he was freezing. I figured that out for myself.
The week before I saw this man standing in the frigid cold, the heater in my truck went out. It was 32° outside but I sat freezing in my truck because I didn’t have any heat. It is unbelievable how the cold cuts right through to your bones. I was able to fix my heater and it worked better than ever. But I could not forget how cold I was without it.
I have struggled giving money to those standing on the street corner. Often, there are so many of them I just don’t think I can help each one. Sometimes I wonder if I am perpetuating their circumstance by giving them money when, if they spent the same amount of effort, they could be paid for working.
The Break-in
Then there is a part of me that believes some of those guys standing on the corner are the ones committing crimes.
A coworker’s home had been broken into, we believe, by a former coworker. The former coworker apparently found living on the streets better than working.
One day, the former coworker came to where he used to be employed and told a crew member that he knew where he lived. It was at this point the crewmember’s home was broken into. Not long after the break-in, the former coworker came back into the store he had worked at, but this time he was wearing very nice clothes and a smirk to go with it. It was as if he was gloating over the crewmember’s loss.
The theft may not have been from the former coworker and if you are inclined to believe my speculation is wrong, so be it. Let us just say then that I have a lot of reasons that have clouded my willingness to give another person money because they are standing on the corner asking for it.
A Fellow Traveler
But on this particular morning, having personally experienced the misery of the bitter chill, there were no excuses to prevent me from helping.
It didn’t matter how this stranger arrived at this point in his life. I realized that I was not his judge. The only thing that mattered was that a human being was standing outside, in severely cold temperatures at 4:30 in the morning.
If this guy was looking for a sympathy vote, then he got it from me. Along with it, he taught me we are all on this journey called “Life” together and I can afford to help a fellow traveler out.