You can tell me quite easily
What I should have done
As you extol life's clarity
With visage of the sun
I know you mean it kindly
As a true and caring friend
But you have the great luxury
Of starting at the end
We never start with the intent
Of making a mistake
Or choose the road to tragedy
In choices that we make
It’s easy now to be so wise
And lend flawless advice
If I saw then what you see now
It sure would have been nice
Janet Martin
A story unfolded in our neighborhood a week ago…
When a kind lady involved in ‘helping’ what turned out to the perpetrators
was asked why she did it she replied, ‘you know the end now. When this began
I was in the beginning and simply thought I was helping someone. Truth be told, if the same thing happened again I would likely do the same thing…again.
I thought it was a great answer. How often we are apt to ‘judge’ after we see the whole story. The person involved is at the beginning…
A man came up to me in the grocery store about a year ago, asking for a few dollars. He had a little girl sleeping in his shoulder (it was around midnight, after I got off work) and I gave him $5. When I got up to the cash register, the man ahead of me said that guy was going around to everyone in the store asking for money. At first, I felt silly for giving him the money, but honestly, I had felt that little 'push' from somewhere to give it to him. I don't know what he did with the money, but all I know is I gave it with pure intentions to help him and the child. It's not up to me to judge him or his actions...
ReplyDeleteYour story sounds a lot like a few my husband has...people down on their luck asking for 'gas money'. A couple times he's been laughed at because he 'got taken'. He says there are time you know that its not the right time to hand them money but when he has given a guy 20 bucks he says once its out of his hands he stops answering for it. He helped with the right intentions and what the next person does is up to them...'in as much as you do it to the least of these...' right? and that goes both ways. So true! It is not up to us to judge...
ReplyDeleteThe lady sounds like she would make a great friend. Trying to do the right thing is never wrong.
ReplyDeleteMike, so true.
ReplyDelete