How My Morning Plans Changed...

I am in Philly and had grand plans for this morning. I was going to write (and actually you can see that I am accomplishing a bit of that.)

But not as much as I wanted to because I was both way laid and interrupted.

First, I refuse to pay $9.95 for Internet. So it was Starbucks to the rescue. Buy a Starbucks card, register it, pay for your coffee with it (and get free refills) and connect to the Internet and write away.

So all was going well until a homeless guy came in and joined me. That was the interruption.

Or was it an opportunity?

An opportunity to model Jesus for someone. This after all, is what those of us who follow Him want to do, or at least say we want to do until the rubber meets the road. So how will we respond, and will it matter on who God brings us to model Jesus to.

He wanted money. A panhandler. "Do you have some money for breakfast?" he asked.

I said no, but asked him if he was hungry and offered to buy him a cup of coffee and a bagel and invited him to sit and chat. I remember a friend's incredible ministry stories about her time with homeless in San Fransisco when she served with a YWAM team.

So I decided to chat with the guy. Yes, it interrupted my writing, but we talked about God and Jesus and it was a pretty cool conversation until it became apparent that every time he left to let me write for a bit he had gone and gotten a beer and was too drunk to converse. That's when I told him he needed to leave.

Ultimately I suppose he wants the same things we all want; love, acceptance, peace inside the turmoil of his soul, which for him undoubtedly has been scarred, he mentioned some parts of his story, abuse, a recently broken arm preventing him from playing his guitar on the street (or was it?), an addiction, 13 DUI's and jail time and hungry, unkempt and a mess.

But to a certain extent aren't we all messes?

What would you have done? Ignored the guy, given him a quarter or bought him breakfast. What about time, would have you given the gift of time?

It's certainly not what I expected of my morning, but I do believe the human condition at its basis is much the same for all of us.

Peace.