I missed the point

I'm disappointed in myself. I missed the point and in turn screwed up an opportunity to serve someone.

You see, I was at a stop light the other day and saw a typical scene for Houston. A homeless person on the corner with a cardboard sign. This guy's main message was that he was hungry. I was in the car by myself and decided that I wanted to help. Side note: My husband doesn't really support my desire to help every homeless person that I encounter. Don't gt mad at him--he helps people for a living which exposes him to the "ugly" in people and he is therefore cautious about who he helps on his own time. I didn't have any food with me, so I decided to give him some money. I pulled out $5 from my purse and rolled down my window.

As he walked toward me, I got a weird feeling. It's like I became afraid of him and what he would say or do to me. I don't know why I felt this way. I was never in any danger. I was in a crowded group of cars all stopped at a stop light. There were plenty of people around me who would have helped me if something actually did happen. But this guy wasn't a threat at all. I was judging him because he was homeless.

And I missed the point.

I reached out and handed him the money and immediately started rolling the window back up. As I was very rudely rolling the window up, he was telling me "thank you" and he complimented my curly hair and said that my husband was a lucky guy. My gut reaction was to feel like he was being a disrespectful man giving me a lame pick-up line. Now that I reflect back, I really think he was giving me a sincere compliment. And I snubbed him. I'm such a jerk! As I was driving away I got so sick at myself. I just treated that man like he was a second-class citizen.

I thought he needed money, but what he really needed was someone to smile in his direction and have a normal conversation with him.

As sick as I feel at myself for completely missing an opportunity to serve someone, I know one thing for sure: I get the point now.