Opportunity Missed

I missed a great opportunity to help  someone out today but I was too blind to see it. You can’t Edit > Undo reality although that would be stellar of God to allow us to. A young guy knocked on my door wearing a button up shirt, khaki pants and a tie. First impression in my head is, “Jehovah’s Witness” but it wasn’t this time. I try to slide myself out the door while Ellie, our Boxer/Mastiff is trying to push by me to get to whoever is on the door.

This young guy begins a selling pitch for organic cleaning spray. He sprays his shirt to show it doesn’t bleach and sprays in his mouth to show it’s all natural. Then he scrubs my sidewalk, car fender, part of my rim and the headlights. All this time he’s telling me what all it can clean and I can get rid of all of my other cleaning products. Repeatedly I ask, “How much is it?” He finally tells me that it is only $50 for a year supply. “What’s a year supply? That 1 bottle?” He replies, “Yes sir, this bottle can be refilled with water.” I tell him I’m not interested a few times and then he realized I’m not about to spend $50 on a bottle.

(Don’t worry, this setup is going somewhere!) He then asks me for a sandwich. Facts filled my head, not compassion. Fact is: I have no bread in the house. My response to him was, “Sorry, I don’t have the ingredients for a sandwich.” The simple fact of me not having bread was preventing me to help this young guy trying to make a living and I’m not sure if he was going home to an empty fridge at his house or going to a house at all.

I close the door, walk in the kitchen and realize that I have pita bread. I go back to the door but I can’t figure out which direction he went. Marlyse and I sit down to eat dinner when I tell her what is heavy on my heart. We stopped eating, jumped in the car and starting driving around to find him. After 15 minutes driving on each street close by, no luck. We get back home and it’s difficult to finish dinner.

How many times does God send an opportunity our way all for us to think about facts instead of thinking in the Spirit and reacting the way He wants us to react? Had I found that young guy driving, I would have brought him back home and he could have had my dinner.
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I pray that I think and react in the Spirit to make better decisions. During the downward spiral of this economy, we can either wait for the government to step in or we can step in to help each other out. Christians shouldn’t be labeled by the church but by their actions. Today, I missed that opportunity to show my faith but I’m open for next time because I hate failing. Even more, I hate failing my Creator.