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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment