As I pulled into the clinic parking lot, I passed a group of folks standing outside the Meyer Center waiting for the social services ministry to open up for the afternoon. I noticed a woman, “Barbara,” whom I recognized from the clinic. After parking my car, I walked around the building to speak to her and see how she was doing.
She told me that she was excited because she had spent some time with her teenage daughter (This is something we had prayed for together after she shared with me that her daughter had admitted to her that she was doing drugs. When Barbara tried to talk her daughter into getting help, it strained their relationship and they had not been speaking). She said that her daughter didn’t have money for food, and so Barbara had spent what little money she had to buy her a meal. She explained to me that she had to leave her “baby” with no way of knowing if she’d have food to eat the following day, but she was trusting God to provide.
At about this point in her story, another woman approached us… another homeless woman who was also waiting for the Meyer Center to open and who had overheard our conversation. She reached into her bag, pulled out a sub sandwich and said to Barbara, “Here, take this sandwich to your daughter. I know it’s not much, but you are welcome to have it.”
And I was dumbfounded. And ashamed. This woman, who had nothing by our world’s standards, gave generously out of her nothingness. She gave away probably the only thing of value that she had. She didn’t pay all her bills first, place the appropriate amount in her retirement account, treat herself to Starbucks, and then donate the leftovers. She saw an immediate need, and she immediately responded.
I have much to learn from those I serve…
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