Does God ever convict you of things at the most inconvenient times!  When life gets busy or you have plans, but a situation presents itself to you and a particular scripture begins to gnaw at your conscience and you just can’t ignore it.  This was the case a couple of nights ago.  At the tail end of a 14 hour day, I couldn’t wait to get home.  Before I could get home, I needed to stop at the market to get milk and cat food.  I figured I would make a quick stop and then home by 11:30PM.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom…. ³⁵ For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink… ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?…. ⁴⁰ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.

– Matthew 25:34-40

As I parked in the dimly lit parking lot, I wanted to take a moment to decompress, something I do often whenever I arrive anywhere.  (This may sound weird, but I often look forward to time alone in my car before having to engage the world).  So I gather my thoughts, see who is texting me at this ungodly hour plus I wanted to hear the end of a song.  While I was sitting there, I noticed a man being ignored by folks as he is obviously asking for someone to help him.  As I get out of my car, I see in my peripheral vision that he is making his way towards me.  I am so not in the mood, tired, 7AM conference call, worked right through lunch up until my 7PM class.  I was running on two FiberOne bars, an apple and water, so I was very tired, hungry and already thinking about my schedule for the next day.  I pretended not to hear the first cry for help “excuse me sir” as I kept walking.  Like an ass, I made him ask again “excuse me sir.”  Matthew 25 was already being quoted back to me in my soul.  As I turned to him, I sized him up, keeping the proper distance in case I had to defend myself, but as he got closer and asked if I could spare change so he could get something to eat, the Lord gave me peace and His spirit of graciousness came over me.  I said “sure I can help, what’s your name?”  He had a hard time answering, mumbled a bit and then said “call me Lee.  People don’t usually ask me my name, sorry.”  The last part of that statement got to me, but I finally got out the words “no worries, nothing to be sorry about.” (His statement caused me to remember a book called “The Hunger for Significance” by R.C. Sproul.  You can find it and my book review on my Goodreads shelf which you can link to above, I highly recommend it).

I said “let me go inside and I will get some cash for you.”  “Thank you, thank you” he said.  “On second thought, why don’t you come in with me and get some food, I will still give you cash, but you should get something to eat.”  He said “really, they have some chicken in the deli that looks good, but it’s too much.” I said “No worries, get what you need.”  As we walked towards the store, he says “I believe in Jesus, I am just trying to get my life back together.”  I said “I can understand that, I believe in Jesus too.”  As I did my shopping, he found me in the store and had a couple of items, then said he preferred to wait outside.

When I got outside, we walked to my car and he began to tell me his story.  He told me how alcohol got a hold of him and he began to do whatever was necessary to drink as much as possible while trying to hide it.  It eventually cost him his job, his wife and their home.  At this point, I knew he was hungry and I remembered that I was hungry, so I reached in my shopping bag and pulled out some Van de Kamp chocolate donuts.  Not something I normally buy, but I thought it would be a nice treat.  As we began eating our donuts, he looked at the sky and said “Lord, you’re always looking out for me.”  He then continued, telling me how he has a son that he would give anything to see, but he got no visiting privileges in the divorce.  He told me how he will always have regret for failing his wife and letting his son down.  He was homeless and sometimes stays at a church across town, but that he has been sober now for over two years.  As we start round two of donuts, he begins to tell me all of the things that God is teaching him and how God is bringing good things from the bad he did.  At this point I am shaking my head and smiling because I arrived with such a poor, selfish attitude and now this person I tried to ignore is ministering to me in the middle of the night in a parking lot when I should clearly be home in bed.  And with that thought, the Lord reminded me to be thankful because I have been blessed with a home and a bed.

We talked about all sorts of things, too much to mention here, but at the end of the conversation we prayed.  He told me his plans for trying to get back to work.  I shared with him some aid that he might qualify for and offered to walk him through the process.  (I believe in giving people a hand up rather than a hand out and this man surely was looking to get back in the game, just needs a little help, like we all do from time to time).  He had arranged for a ride across town to the church, so I gave him my phone number and we parted ways.  As I think about that evening, I almost missed out on a tremendous blessing and I was also reminded that everything I have is because of God.  He provided the money for me to be helpful that night and it would have been a terrible disservice to Him if my flesh had gotten its way.  Makes me wonder how many other blessings I have missed out on because of me.  I have to admit that as I listened to him speak, Hebrews 13:2 crossed my mind more than once, but I really didn’t want to ask.  I means it’s now after 1AM and I was really not sure I was ready for a heavenly host to manifest in the Ralphs parking lot.  I guess there is still a small part of me that prefers revealed revelation to direct revelation, so I withheld the question.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Hebrews 13:2

I am aware that by posting this, I have my reward, but my hope is that this will encourage someone to step out of their comfort zone and be helpful.  I was hungry and irritable, not for lack of resources, but because of the decisions that I made that day.  This man was hungry, hoping and praying that somebody would help.  I helped, reluctantly at first, but it turned out that I was the one who got blessed.  I have always believed that if you are a believer, God allows folks to cross your path for a reason and what I am learning is to not so quickly dismiss anyone for they might be someone that God will use to provide you with a tremendous blessing.

When you take time to pray, please consider Lee and pray for his journey back, for work, to get reestablished so he can see his son again and hopefully his wife.  Sometimes God will strip us of everything so He can rebuild us to be the person He called us to be.  For me, this is another reminder to seek God and His kingdom first before He is forced to get my attention.