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Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Raymond Sharpe's invitation is awaiting your response
Raymond Sharpe's invitation is awaiting your response
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Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Raymond Sharpe's invitation is awaiting your response
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Raymond Sharpe's invitation is awaiting your response
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Thursday, January 9, 2014
Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
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Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
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Saturday, December 12, 2009
Pauline
So the last night I went out to pick up a bite to eat. Well, actually 12" of bites to eat. Subway: My wife's favorite. As I pulled in to the parking space in front of the sandwich shop, I noticed there was a homeless lady standing outside the door of the restaurant. Long story short, she was asking for money for a hotel room, "only $20 to go". So I gave her a buck. Then turned back around and offered to buy her a sandwich. She sprung for the Chicken Cordon Bleu Melt. "But NO onions...I'm trusting you!", she said. Of course I produced the promised sandwich without the undesired onions.
So my offering the lady a sandwich is not the point of the story. What piqued my interest and what has been rolling around in my head are the observations during this interaction last night.
The Details:
There are no other customers in the restaurant. Its just me the guy behind the counter and on of his coworkers sitting at one of the tables on his break.
As I'm placing the order with the "sandwich artist" he keeps looking over my shoulder at the front of the store. I'm pretty sure I know what/who he's looking at. Finally, my curiosity must be sated and I turn around to see that the lady is peeking in the window at the exchange between him and I, no doubt to insure the dreaded onions do not make it on to her sandwich. I smile and get back to the business at hand. A minute or so later she pokes her head in and reminds me not to put onions on her sandwich. At this point the two Subway guys get what is going on and the one tells me he is relieved to know why the lady kept looking in the window.
So now he gets it and asks if I want her onion-less sandwich in a second bag. In the process of paying and filling drink cups and selecting chips, she sticks her head in multiple times to assure me I don't need to get her a drink and to tell me she likes the Nacho Cheese Dorito's. Somewhere in all this the guy at his break makes this statement: " You're going straight to Heaven, man."
After I went out and gave her the sandwich and assured her that there were no onions on it. I asked her name..."Pauline"... and I told her mine and that it was nice to meet her and wished her a goodnight. As I walked away she asked, "what church are you from."
The Observations:
So my offering the lady a sandwich is not the point of the story. What piqued my interest and what has been rolling around in my head are the observations during this interaction last night.
The Details:
There are no other customers in the restaurant. Its just me the guy behind the counter and on of his coworkers sitting at one of the tables on his break.
As I'm placing the order with the "sandwich artist" he keeps looking over my shoulder at the front of the store. I'm pretty sure I know what/who he's looking at. Finally, my curiosity must be sated and I turn around to see that the lady is peeking in the window at the exchange between him and I, no doubt to insure the dreaded onions do not make it on to her sandwich. I smile and get back to the business at hand. A minute or so later she pokes her head in and reminds me not to put onions on her sandwich. At this point the two Subway guys get what is going on and the one tells me he is relieved to know why the lady kept looking in the window.
So now he gets it and asks if I want her onion-less sandwich in a second bag. In the process of paying and filling drink cups and selecting chips, she sticks her head in multiple times to assure me I don't need to get her a drink and to tell me she likes the Nacho Cheese Dorito's. Somewhere in all this the guy at his break makes this statement: " You're going straight to Heaven, man."
After I went out and gave her the sandwich and assured her that there were no onions on it. I asked her name..."Pauline"... and I told her mine and that it was nice to meet her and wished her a goodnight. As I walked away she asked, "what church are you from."
The Observations:
1) "You're going straight to Heaven, man."
Sadly, I did not capitalize on this opportunity to share my faith with this man. Hopefully, next time I will be better prepared. By the time I got home I had thought about what I should have said. Something like this:
" I'm not doing this to get into Heaven. I'm doing it because I'm a Christian. That means I believe my faith in Jesus is my ticket to Heaven. But I am doing this because I am a Christian. In serving those who are hungry and hurting I am serving God and hopefully teaching others about Jesus' serving love."
2) "What church are you from?"
Pauline assumed I did this act of kindness because I was affiliated with a church. That means she's seen it- Jesus' serving love. She also informed me that I had given her a pamphlet about God before. I'm pretty sure I never did that, but someone maybe did and it obviously impacted her. So those of you who do share our Lord's care for the hurting keep up the good work, your acts are affecting change.
3) Pauline
She's somebody's someone (a daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt...). She's a child of God and she has a name. I've found that the encounters I have had with hurting homeless people have been much more memorable when I know their names and they know mine. Don't be afraid to open up and ask a name. It can be an extra window into conversation. Let these people know that you know they are a person with a name. They mean something to someone!
As I was writing this I was reminded of this song by Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot).
Also, a movie on the topic of homelessness that I watched and found interesting is: The Soloist (starring Robert Downing Jr. and Jaime Foxx) based on a true story.
Those of you that know me will know I did not write this to boast. Please do not think that is the purpose of this post. I write to bring insight and motivation to those who share an interest in serving the hurting people in our world.
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