On one particular Friday afternoon, Bruce, Hippie Jerry and Black Steve were caught in the rain. Bruce and Jerry just sat there on the bench at the bus stop while the rain drenched them. However, Black Steve, who was on the median at the traffic light holding a cardboard sign, continued trying to collect money from compassionate motorists. I'm not sure how successful he was as most people don't like to roll their windows down in the pouring rain. To no avail he continued panhandling hoping the added misery would work in his favor.
The rain came in quickly and it came down in sheets, it was so thick visibility deteriorated and the guys couldn't even see the other side of the five lane street. Suddenly a huge gust of wind came in and what appeared to be a mini tornado picked Black Steve up about four feet off of the ground and spun him around violently while suspended in mid air and as fast as it came it left, dumping him into a huge water puddle in the middle of the intersection. Shaken and now fully bathed, he stammered to his feet and limped over to the bus stop.
The next day at breakfast, while Bruce and Jerry were telling me what happened, Bruce said "I would have went out there and helped him, but, I couldn't because I was laughing to hard."
How often we'll watch in amazement as peoples lives are disrupted by a twister of events and instead of lending a hand, we sit and chuckle, thinking "better them than me". It's at times like these I have to check myself because I'm guilty as charged. I'll laugh when a car splashes people waiting at a bus stop. I'll think things like "sucks to be you" when I see a guy trying to change a tire on the side of a busy 12 lane highway. And oh boy! If I find out someone is having twins, I laugh out loud.
The thing is, all those things have happened to me before and instead of having compassion for the victims of circumstance, I laugh. I know laughter is supposed to be good medicine, but, in these instances it just might be the wrong medicine.
Jesus said the second most important commandment is to love people as you love your self. That is huge when it comes to starting an outreach church, because everyone we are reaching out to is a victim of circumstance. The circumstance of sin. The enemy is hell bent on disrupting lives with a twister of temptations. Hoping to lift us up and slam us into a puddle of road sludge. When we see someone lying in the muck, our first impulse is to step back and do nothing. However, if we love that person like we love ourselves, we would step up and offer a hand.
As we continue our mission in South Florida, please pray that God will give us the kind of compassion that changes lives and that we'll step up and offer a hand to those stuck in a puddle of muck.
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