Wednesday, March 17, 2010

God Understands

I'm sorry I don't write more on my blog. It always amazes that people such as Terry Rush and others can write so much and have so much to say. It takes so much out of me to write something that I feel comfortable printing. And, I've been trying to send my son what we call a VOD (Verse of the Day) to encourage him while he's away at college. So my creative juices are pretty low. But I write when I've got something to say, so please bear with me.
Recently, I had an incident that shook me to the core. A man came up to me on our parking lot asking for help. It is pretty much our policy not to just hand out money to anyone who comes by, but we do have a food pantry to help those who need something to eat. This gentleman wanted money and if I have some money, I generally will give it out. On this day I had $8 in my pocket. Turns out the man wanted money for two nights in a hotel. Now, I've told him about three times that we don't do money. He then asks me for one night in a motel. I kind of chuckled and said we don't do money. That set him off. I was laughing at him. Me and my fancy car (I drive a Honda Element) and my fancy brief case (I've had this computer case for several years; it's literally falling apart); I live like a king. He called me every name in the book and told me that I ought to read the Bible. That if I lived his life for five minutes, I wouldn't have any faith.
It didn't stop at that. He left me a phone message telling me that I had spit in his face, not literally, but figuratively. He also left a message on our main phone telling the elders what a horrible person I was and how I had humiliated him. That he was on disability for mental illness and that he was suicidal. I had left it all die down when we received another phone call telling the same thing.
I've prayed for him a number of times. I wish it hadn't ended that way. I've questioned myself about whether I had handled the situation in the right way. It's helped me to see what a sinful, full-of-fault man I am.
Needless to say, this really has hit me hard. It's helped me to realize that what Jesus went through was hundreds, thousands of times worse. That people don't really think that anybody understands them. But our God is a God who can handle everything. He is El-Shaddai, All-Sufficient, Almighty God.
I hope your day is a good one. JW

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