This has been quite the week for me. I flew down to San
Antonio to attend a conference for electric cooperative communicators. So the
week is full of seminars and meetings designed to help us do our job better.
Wednesday of the conference was my best day. On top of
great, informative seminars, I accepted 3 national awards for our use of social
media and photography. To top off my day, I got to go watch the San Antonio
Spurs clinch their spot in the Western Conference finals. My day could not have
turned out better and it didn’t. It got worse.
Smiling, on cloud nine coming back to the hotel from the
game I met David. David was in front of my hotel and approached me. David was about
my age, clean cut, very nice, dressed nice with a shoulder bag. He was well
spoken. David is homeless.
During the conversation I learned that David had lost his
job some time ago and has been homeless for several weeks. The Salvation Army
has a local shelter where he stays. He was excited because he had a new job
that he was starting in a few days, but that did not help him this night. David
was hungry.
David weaved a story about his hard luck. But he was not
giving up. He does not desire to be homeless. He wants to be useful. He wants
to work and make a living. He does not want to call his family for help, but he
is on the brink of having to swallow his pride and make the phone call he so
desperately does not want to make.
I know what you are thinking. How do I know he is telling
the truth? How do I know he isn’t pulling a scam? I don’t know, but there was
something different about David. I could tell the last thing he wanted to do
was ask me for the money. It pained him to ask and I could see the pain on his
face as he told his story.
I gave David what money I had in my wallet, we prayed and he
walked away. Then I started feeling the pain. In the midst of my great day God
brought be back to reality. As I was enjoying myself in all of worldly things,
there are people out there hurting in a life that is not what they dreamed about
when they were a kid. The dream of being what ever they wanted to be when they
grew up did not come to fruition.
All night and all morning David has weighed heavily on me.
So heavy that I came to a realization today, I am David’s Goliath. I am not the
reason why David is without a job and on the street. However, I am the reason
he continues to feel pain. We all are.
I am reminded of a speaker I once saw at the Missouri
Baptist Convention in Cape Girardeau when it was held at the Show Me
Center. The speaker, whose name escapes me, said “When you see what Jesus sees,
you will feel what Jesus feels.”
Look what is says in Philippians 2:4,
“do
not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests
of others.”
That means take off the blinders and look around you. Who
needs to be helped? More importantly who needs to be loved? Isn’t that after
all, what we as Christians are suppose to do? To love everyone especially those
who no ones wants to love? If we truly love God then that has to be our
objective. Our mission in life.
“But
whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his
heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” 1 John 3:17
Time will tell how this will affect me. God is not done with
me on this subject yet. I am still processing what he has shown me, but I do
know this. I can no longer be a Goliath. No more excuses. No more turning a
blind eye.
My hope in sharing is that you take away a positive, not a
negative. My hope in sharing this story and how God is speaking to me right now
will be a motivation for you. That you recognize you are a Goliath and that it is time to love David. If you
come to this recognition, do me a favor. Go on social media, Facebook, Twitter,
what ever you use and put the following; I am Goliath. #loveDavid. Let’s start
a movement today to take off the blinders and love the David’s of the world.
