it is a well known fact that if i pass someone homeless or hungry on the street and have any kind of edible food in my car, it will be given away. i can’t help it. i know it’s supposedly bad and dangerous or whatever but it’s my food, so, deal with it. :)
anyway, i pull into oklahoma city and realize the hotel i am at is close to my favorite fast food italian eatery, fazoli’s. i get my ravioli kid’s meal and go on my merry way.
pulling back onto the highway, from a distance, i see a homeless man.
i look down at my lunch. i haven’t eaten since peanuts on the plane at 7:30 am. i smell the garlic breadsticks in my car. i wrestle. i plead.
i bargain.
only if his sign says something about food…that’s the only way he’s getting it.
he makes his way down the road, passing about 10 cars and stops by my car. i wonder if he smelled the garlic breadsticks, too.
his sign says, “will work for food. hungry.”
i ignore my promise.
he stays standing there.
and i give in. i roll down my window and hand him the bag.
“hey, do you want some lunch? i just picked it up from across the street.”
he grins widely and takes it. he says, “ooh, it’s warm still.”
“enjoy,” i said and drove off.
now, stay with me. connectedness is one of my strengths finder strengths. this one gives someone the superpower of connecting random bits of information and stringing them together in a way that most people couldn’t.
in this situation, my connectedness kicked in.
“well, there goes my lunch, but, at least he needs it.”
(insert good feeling)
“i wonder if it was contaminated some how and maybe i would have gotten sick from eating it and wouldn’t have been able to be at ministrycom08 to speak.”
(insert feeling of divine protection)
“but if it is contaminated, that means that homeless guy is going to have the runs. i just gave a homeless guy the runs.”
(insert feeling of guilt)
i call my husband to tell him what had just unfolded in literally less than 30 seconds from start to finish. i tell him how it’s my “connectedness” manifesting.
he says,
“anne. that’s not called connectedness. that’s called crazy.”
lesson: speak the truth in love. and give your food away.
==
read other lessons:
Lesson 317: pillow talk
Lesson 256: submission
Lesson 439: honesty
Lesson 833: time management
Related posts:
I have a soft spot for homeless people too. Hopefully he didn’t get the runs. : )
thats so funny…the title made me read the whole blog top to bottom. the absolute worse thing in the world is to offer a homeless person food and they say no. (insert awkward and frustrated feeling here).
i’m with kelli, hopefully he didn’t get the runs. bc where does a homeless person go and when they can’t stop?
or maybe he’s an angel unaware and he won’t really eat the food that will give him the runs…
haha – That was me sucka… saw you pull into the restaurant. Canadians always carry a sign like that so we can travel economically. Those breadsticks were awesome!
:)
That is a funny story…well, not until you started being “connected”. It was awesome of you to give your lunch away. But your husband’s comment…classic! :-)
That was a funny read.
At least the homeless guy will have a full stomach before getting the runs.
I live around and interact with homeless people everyday here in Detroit. Making decisions when we see an isolated situation is far easier when there’s one after another… being “Jesus with skin on” requires a lot of wisdom, meekness, faith & mercy – I need to work on all of those.
Enjoy OKC.
*insert: “than” after ‘easier’ & before ‘when’ – ha!
i think its actually worse than you think…remember Jesus saying that whenever you feed “the least of these” you really take care of Him?
i’m pretty sure you just gave Jesus the runs.
Could it be one way that we’re kept humble? Don’t feel too good about yourself . . . some stranger could have the runs?
I don’t know. . .
Thanks for the laugh!
You have a golden heart.
And you’re funny too.
Prayin’ for ya!
Love the story. It reminds me of the commercial that is out now where the guy says, “Human beings acting humanly!” Much better than Christians acting religiously! Thanks for keeping it real! Have a great conference!
Anne…I love you and your heart! You think much like I do…all those thoughts running in your brain…ha!
Anne,
I just discovered your blog a week or so ago and I’m loving it! Just thought I’d let you know! Have a good day!
I don’t think you gave away your lunch to a homeless guy. You gave it away to a professional pan-handler who’s too lazy to work when there are plenty of jobs out there if you just clean yourself up and look for them. We have those guys here in Iowa City – read an article on them. There’s a whole network of them. They do nothing but panhandle. They know the best street corners and what the best times are. And some of them even have homes to go home to.
I carry around $10 mcD’s gift cards for this type situation.
John C., w/r/t being exploited…well that’s part of the game. In the NT, Christ himself was exploited by people who were healed, etc. and showed no gratitude and just disappeared. We may give things to professional poor people who don’t really need it, but that’s one of those “give them your cloak too” things.
David said that Anne’s hubby’s comment was “classic” , not exactly sure what he meant. But one never knows who they are helping, that guy could have grabbed Anne, pulled her out of the car, etc….highly unlikely but people pretend that their cars are broken down just to prey on their vicitm. Who knows what a homeless and hungry scam could be? Remember your mom teaching you to NEVER pick up a hitch hiker?…there was a reason.
Connectedness and gut feeling, probably!
With that being said i agree that it takes much FAITH!
honesty only a loving spouse can give :) praying for you…the conference stuff, not your belly…ok, maybe that, too…
Mike: I hear ya. I see both sides and believe me, I’m tempted beyond measure too at times to give. And I have given money, food etc. at times when I’m lead. When I stay at a hotel in a city, if I’m able, I save up all of the in room toiletries and give them to homeless if they’re around the area. Soap, shampoo, etc. And there is the circle of thought that says air on the side of compassion and let it be that. I guess my gripe is that I see the same guys in our area, on the same street corners, day after day with the same sign, year after year. They only come out during rush hour of course. And I did read a very telling article in a local paper that went inside this world and exposed what a real scam most of them are. But I wonder just how many people over the course of time have also been “Jesus” to them over and over? Do we all need to be Jesus to the same person over and over? Which is fine I guess. I know Christ helped these people in His time. But I wonder what he would have done if he had to keep helping/feeding/healing the same people that came back day after day after day with the same tactic? Christ has unending compassion and grace of course, but He ALSO would use discernment when needed after awhile and confront the person that was obviously just taking advantage of hand outs when they probably were not homeless, or just using it for other things. I’d say give the person a copy of the day’s job ads, and a pre-paid calling card to use! Seriously of coures, as always, wise discernment and leading of the Holy Spirit is the best path.
Hey – did anyone hear about the outbreak of food poisoning among the homeless in OK City after some guy shared his italian fast food that someone gave him?
That is SO something my husband would have said! Enjoy OKC~praying for ya!
so did you ever get to eat?
and your husband is right, that is crazy.
Oh. My. Goodness.
So, one of my strengths is connectedness too, and I’m ALWAYS doing things like this, much to the bewilderment of my boyfriend. So I emailed him your statement about it being a superpower”, and THEN kept reading to Chris’ comment! HAHAHA. Girl, I SO understand!
Just this week, I was all like “The world is SO SMALL. I just ran in to a kid from my high school who is in the SAME Mast’er’s program I am!” That’s not connectedness. That’s called “we go to school 30 minutes from our hometown and haven’t left!”
(Have fun and stay safe in OKC!)
Not crazy, just listening to the prompts of God. I wish more people would do good like you do.
Peace
Marquis
It’s great how spouses can kick you off your high horse and bring you back to reality. not that you need that, of course… but i do. my wife always pulls my head out of the clouds of speculation and mystery (which are fun places to be, but sometimes unproductive) and tells me how it really is.
Sounds to me like you have a great husband. His comment cracked me up. Glad you gave your lunch away (I have the same problem) but pulease, hold onto the fact he was pleased it was warm, I don’t think he will be worried about the runs as much as you will be! ;)
Chris was right, that is crazy. If God can protect you from the runs he can protect him. Lord, you have me buying into the whole story.
Thanks for your help. Keep praying.
From one fellow Connectedness strength to another, I can totally see how you connected the dots in your situation. Your husband’s comment about being crazy may be when we get to the level when our Connectedness strength gets in the out of control mode! I just wrote a post on StrengthsFinder on my blog. So, I wrote a follow-up to it today referring blog readers to your post.
Hope the discussion went well today and your nerves didn’t get the best of you!
so what’d you end up eating?
chick fil a from the mall…..and i bought a shirt.
can’t believe you gave him the runs!!!!!! hehehehehehe
I think that’s really awesome!
with your hubby!
I love chick-fil-a!
i freaking love Chris.
Strange…i have that exact same strength.
Call me crazy, but I’m a connecter too.
And, I have the same rule. See someone homeless and I have food, give away.
Sometimes I hate it. ;-)
My husband & son met Mr. Cathy in a hospital one time. it was before we as a family became a Chic-fli-A fan. He gave my son who was 3 at the time one of those silly cows. Now – If I met that man I’d hug him real hard & wouldn’t let go. It is the only fast food I will eat & he has principles too!
Okay, I love this story!! Being Italian and all – you can imagine my joy. I also LOVE your heart. Thanks for making me smile!
“i just gave a homeless guy the runs.” You know anne, it’s times like these when I wish I still blogged. (grin)
Seriously though, panhandling is hard! I failed at it miserably the one time I tried it. Think of the suppression of self-esteem it takes to be on the other end of the pan. (grin)
i still have regrets about not buying a homeless man lunch one time. each time i am presented with an opportunity, i feel it is God helping to redeem my bad decision.
I love that “we” (creative people) connect things in a such a way that could potentially drive us crazy and ohhhh the ups and downs we can have in just 30 seconds. Thats my life every day.
I love that God sends people our way who snaps us out of it. Your husband rocks!
Anne, I think you suffer from something I do too……you think too much! haha
Hope ministrycom went well!
I have thought about this over the weekend. One of the corporeal works of mercy is to feed the hungry. It says feed the hungry, not the socially acceptable, not those you approve of, my point is this, why don’t we just feed them all, and let God sort them out?.
That’s great Anne. I do the same thing. It comes easy for me, but not so easy for my wife. I have taken her on some of my unexpected journeys and they have been beautiful. We should love like that now, because there will not be the homeless and hungry in Heaven. It’s good to be back in the groove of things. Thanks for talking to me :)
I don’t know about your rules…but I am pretty sure we are to feed the hungry. So good job. I am way super proud of you.