I misplaced my cell phone charger and my phone died sometime last night. I was very irritated with myself about this. I had to drive all the way to Wal Mart to spend 15 dollars on a phone charger that was not even up to standard with the one I already owned. I was very disgruntled as I drove back home with my wallet weighing a little less, and then it began to rain.. could it get any worse?
As I was driving and reflecting on my miserable day, I noticed an old beat up truck on the side of the road with the flashers on. I did not think much about about it until I saw an elderly woman making an exhausting effort to retrieve something heavy out of the back of the truck. I instinctively pulled over and when I got out I asked her if she needed any help.
She looked at me with relief and said "Well my husband had a stroke and I'm trying to get his wheel chair into the truck so it does not get wet."
My heart broke and I quickly helped her load the surprisingly heavy chair into the cab. After a pretty tiring ten minutes she looked at me and started to swell with tears and went to the driver's side of the truck to retrieve her purse and proceeded to get out a 5 dollar bill and gestured toward me. I protested and told her I could not accept her money. She continued to insist and eventually I gave in and she just smiled and hugged me and told me how much she appreciated my help.
As I waved goodbye and drove away I found myself smiling and crying. This simple act of kindness made everything else that day seem so unimportant. And then I thought to myself, if this one event made me feel this wonderful, why am I not helping people as much as possible every day?
Its funny because I had a similar situation happen to me recently. A friend of mine from church mentioned that he would like to go mountain biking. He asked me if I had a bike, and I said that I haven't owned a bicycle since I was like 14. He seemed really pumped and I kind of was too at the thought of going riding, so I proceeded to look for a mountain bike at a decent price. After a trip to WalMart, eBay search, and a Google search, I settled on looking on Craigslist. I found some for sale from a man that actually lived in my town. I was stoked because the bikes looked awesome and he was only asking $40-$45 per bike. I emailed, and then called to set up a time to come and look at the bikes. The guy seemed really excited on the phone and I set up a time for that very afternoon. I went by the ATM and had to get out $60 (it was one of those awesome $20 increment ATM's). I drove all the way to the guy's house in the rural part of my town. The guy, Ray, came to meet me at my car, already having all of the bikes lined up for my inspection. He was a real "talker" if you know what I mean. He was telling me all about the bikes and how they rode, changed gears, etc... I finally settled on a practically new looking Huffy brand. I asked him how much he wanted for it becuase I couldn't remember if it was $40 or $45. He said $45. I asked if he had any change because I only had three $20 bills. He said he didn't with an immensely disappointed look on his face. I thought for a moment, looked at the bike, and looked back at him. I knew the bike was in brand new shape and would be around $120 at WalMart. I decided just to give him $60. I told him that the bike was worth it and that it wasn't a big deal. Then.....something unexpected happened. Ray started to cry. Like REALLY cry. It was then that I found out that he was 71 years old, married, and had been laid off for over 7 months. He was desparately trying to get some income coming in some way to keep up their bills. His wife had to go to Washington because one of their grandsons was having surgery. I was dumbfounded. It was as if God reached down and slapped me across the face. I love it when He does that. I talked to Ray a while and thanked him. I told him I would tell everyone I know to buy a bike from him. So, if you need a bike, call Ray. I'll be more than happy to give you his number.
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