William was a normal guy, on this particular day he decided to take a walk and enjoy the weather. It seemed like forever since the weather was this nice. William had a good job, beautiful family, and had a lot of possibilities lying before him. Even with all the great things in life, William loved to hear other people’s stories. It so happened on this walk that he came upon a man sitting on the steps of a building with a small bucket in front of him. He would hold it out when someone approached in the hopes of making some small amount of money.
William normally would throw some change or a couple of dollars into the bucket and say the normal, “Have a nice day.” However, today felt different. Under an impulsion that he normally resisted and shrugged off, he decided to try to find out this guy’s story.
William walked up to the man, who sitting on the steps and said, “I’d like to buy you some lunch, and when I come back, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to sit and talk with you a bit.”
The beggar, excited at the prospect of a free meal, gladly accepted. He was sure there would be an agenda to be pushed, but it was a free meal.
William walked away, but noticed that the beggar was blind because of his actions and the sunglasses he wore. He realized the man must have been blind or had very poor sight because the man’s actions and the fact that he was wearing dark sunglasses.
William came back shortly with a bag of food from a local burger place and sat down beside the man and began to distribute the food between them. They made some short talk in the mean time of dividing the food and eating.
“Thank you sir, I appreciate your kindness.” The man said through in his rough voice.
“That’s no problem, I am happy to help. By the way, my name is William, what is your name?”
“My name is Paul.”
“Well, it is nice to meet you Paul. Tell me a little bit about yourself, how long have you been in this situation?”
Paul began his story, “Well, I sit out here every day, been that way for about ten years now. You see, about ten years ago is when I lost my job. Being blind, the job market is pretty limited for me.”
William began ask some questions, he had always been a curious person, “Have you ever had your sight? What kind of work did you do? I have some friends that may have a job open, maybe I can help.”
Paul answered that it had always been this way; he had never been able to see. He had worked various odd jobs but had never really settled down into what he would call a “career.”
“I suppose if I had an operation I may be able to see, at least that what the doctors told me.”
“Wait, if you had surgery…you could see?” William asked in confusion.
“O sure, that’s what the doctors say, but I don’t know if that is really true.” Paul said in a sort of ho-hum manner.
“ Wow, well, Paul, what if I told you this meeting may be more than just chance because I am an ophthalmologist! I would love to take a look at your situation, run tests, the whole works and see if there is anything I could do. If there is anything I can do, I would do it all for free!” William was so excited, because he often felt that he had gotten calloused about what he did. Maybe this time he could really help someone less fortunate. Maybe he could make a difference in someone’s life that, otherwise, couldn’t change.
Now Paul thought this over for a minute and responded, “Well now, that’s a mighty nice offer, but I suppose I would rather just leave things the way they are.”
To be continued...
To be continued...
3 comments:
Looking forward to pt. 2, but this is a true story - just change the details to a man named Michael who had been horribly disfigured due to terrible burns. Michael would beg on the "el" in Chicago. When I first saw him, I was horrified. I could only stare in terror. He looked like someone from a horror flick. For a long time, I felt bad for not giving him money, but then I found that he had been offered reconstructive surgery free of charge and he had refused.
Wow, that is amazing...there have been several people come by our church looking for help. They love the idea of getting money but don't want any of the deeper help. One man lived in a van with his cats, we found him an apartment free of charge and possibility of a job...he refused and to my knowledge still lives in his van.
I remember having a man come to (a former) church asking for food (really, he wanted money). I gave him a coat as well. He scoffed at the food I had available to give him (he did take it), and he denied me when I asked if I could pray with him.
That kind of guy gives a bad name to all hungry and cold people in the world.
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