A mistake I'll never make again

Today, I made a decision I will regret for the rest of my life. I promise that I will never make this mistake ever again.

Now let me explain a sad truth. When you see a homeless person and a dog with them, who do you feel more pity and sympathy for? Most Americans will probably feel sorry for that poor, hungry dog. Now this is in my own opinion and from my own experiences. How disappointing is that when someone feels more sympathy for a DOG rather than a human being. Yes, it's important to care for animals and whatnot, but when did we decide that it was okay to place an animal in front of a human being?
Why do we treat homeless people like they don't exist? So what if they've made mistakes in their lives? We make mistakes all the time. Some of them may not be as fatal and detrimental; however, mistakes are mistakes. No one is perfect. What makes you better than a person on the streets? Your looks? Your financial status? Your intelligence? The fact that your mistakes weren't as "stupid" as theirs? None of this matters. We're just like them. Imperfect. Flawed. Sinful. The list can go on and on.

Now here's the mistake I made today. I was on my way to leave for a tennis match. I looked down the alley and saw a homeless man eating out of a dumpster. A dumpster. This man was so hungry that he resorted to eating scraps out of a trash bag. He's living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. A country that has a plentiful amount of resources: food, water, electricity, etc. And he's eating out of a dumpster.
I felt disgusted in so many different ways. Not of what he was doing, but of how he was pushed to the limit and had no other choice in order to survive. What's even worse is that I got in the car and left. I didn't want to keep my friends waiting. I didn't want to be judged. I had things to do.
I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I let a man be humiliated in one of the worst possible ways anyone can be humiliated.

I will never make this mistake again. I will never make an excuse not to help someone in need. A few minutes of my time to help someone in a dire situation is worth more than me spending it in class, watching tv, playing games, or whatever else. And if I do fail again, I can only ask for forgiveness for not having the compassion that Christ commanded me to show to everyone.

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Giving.

Today was a relaxing, blessed day. Both my classes this morning were cancelled due to lack of attendance. It probably had to do with the fact that the night before was halloween. However, I went to class without knowing any of this. I guess the good thing was that my professor gave extra credit to those who still showed up to class. Since I no longer had class, I had 2 hours of free time before going to Cafe Medici.

So let's rewind as to why I planned on going to Cafe Medici. I received a free 20 dollar store credit to Cafe Medici from downloading a PayPal app. Seeing that there is no way that I can consume 20 dollars worth of coffee, I offered my college fellowship members to join me for free drinks.

Anyway, I had two hours to spend. I decided to just spend some time at the gym until it was time to meet at Cafe Medici. When I arrived there, no one showed up except for two other friends who also had store credit to spend. I didn't want to waste the opportunity to use all this free credit; so I bought 3 cokes and 3 bottles of orange juice. As I left the Cafe, I decided to just hand out all those drinks to any homeless person I saw. It just so happened that there were people right outside, and I handed them out. Those people looked so surprised and happy to see me offer them a coke.

Later that evening, I was walking towards Cabo Bob's to meet my small group to eat dinner. For those of you who don't know what Cabo Bob's is, it is a burrito restaurant that recently opened up in Austin. By the way, the food is very good (much better than Chipotle). As I approached the restaurant, a homeless man approached me and asked me for money. Unfortunately, I don't carry cash with me at all and told him that I didn't have any cash. He seemed pretty disappointed and pointed how I'm about to eat at the restaurant but can't give him any money. Without thinking, I immediately asked him if he would like me to buy him a meal. He became very ecstatic and kept asking me if "I was being serious." I said "yes."

So we walk into the restaurant, and the man introduces himself as Quinton. I respond and introduce myself. As we get in line and I ask Quinton what he wants to eat. He kept telling me how thankful he was and just told me to buy the cheapest thing.

On a sidenote, Quinton didn't seem too straight in the head, if you know what I mean. From the moment I started talking to him, he continued to talk and stutter all his words. But I could see that his excitement made him stutter even more.

I tell Quinton to get anything he wants. Just when I thought he couldn't get more crazy, his eyes open up even wider; he starts talking even faster. As he's ordering in line, he keeps telling the workers to put everything in the burrito. However, the workers were hesitant and looked to me for approval. Of course, I nodded and said yes to whatever Quinton asked for. So I finally paid at the register, and Quinton kept telling all the workers how great of a guy I am for buying him a meal and how I'm a good Christian and many more things that I can't remember. All I could remember was that everyone was smiling and cracking up. Finally, I helped Quinton fill up his drink. Now remember, he's been talking non-stop ever since I met him.

He kept talking about: how he's messed up, how he doesn't deserve this, how kind I am, how he's so thankful, etc. He began to cry. I didn't know how to respond. All I said was that he does deserve to be shown kindness. Although he may have done things in the past, that doesn't deny him from receiving kindness, mercy, and second-chances. So I asked him if I could pray for him and his meal really quickly. In his broken, emotional state, he started to kneel onto the ground. I stopped him from getting down and told him to stand as we prayed. So we prayed and said our goodbyes. Quinton kept shaking my hand and hugged me multiple times...

The only thing I could think about was why he tried to kneel before me as I asked to pray for him. I'm just as messed up as he is in different ways. I'm not a perfect person. There's no reason for anyone to kneel before me. Also, I didn't know why I offered to buy him food without any hesitation. There's no way I would offer to buy anyone food, being the selfish person I am. It's Him working within me. I hope that Quinton was impacted by Christ who inspires me to live the way I do.

 

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