{"id":18516,"date":"2012-10-14T08:56:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T06:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/?p=18516"},"modified":"2012-10-14T09:06:54","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T07:06:54","slug":"dont-we-all-need-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/story\/dont-we-all-need-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t we all need help?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>[singlepic id=958 w=600 h=426 float=center]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car. I had just come from the car wash and was waiting for my wife to get out of work.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Coming my way from across the parking lot was what society would consider a bum. From the looks of him, he had no car, no home, no clean clothes, and no money. There are times when you feel generous but there are other times that you just don\u2019t want to be bothered. This was one of those \u201cdon\u2019t want to be bothered times.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI hope he doesn\u2019t ask me for any money,\u201d I thought. He didn\u2019t. He came and sat on the curb in front of the bus stop but he didn\u2019t look like he could have enough money to even ride the bus. After a few minutes he spoke. \u201cThat\u2019s a very pretty car,\u201d he said. He was ragged but he had an air of dignity around him. His scraggly blond beard keep more than his face warm. I said, \u201cthanks,\u201d and continued wiping off my car.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>He sat there quietly as I worked. The expected plea for money never came. As the silence between us widened something inside said, \u201cask him if he needs any help.\u201d I was sure that he would say \u201cyes\u201d but I held true to the inner voice. \u201cDo you need any help?\u201d I asked.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>He answered in three simple but profound words that I shall never forget. We often look for wisdom in great men and women. We expect it from those of higher learning and accomplishments. I expected nothing but an outstretched grimy hand. He spoke the three words that shook me. \u201cDon\u2019t we all?\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I was feeling high and mighty, successful and important, above a bum in the street, until those three words hit me like a twelve gauge shotgun. Don\u2019t we all?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I needed help. Maybe not for bus fare or a place to sleep, but I needed help. I reached in my wallet and gave him not only enough for bus fare, but enough to get a warm meal and shelter for the day. Those three little words still ring true.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>No matter how much you have, no matter how much you have accomplished, you need help too. No matter how little you have, no matter how loaded you are with problems, even without money or a place to sleep, you can give help. Even if it\u2019s just a compliment, you can give that.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>You never know when you may see someone that appears to have it all. They are waiting on you to give them what they don\u2019t have. A different perspective on life, a glimpse at something beautiful, a respite from daily chaos, that only you through a torn world can see.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Maybe the man was just a homeless stranger wandering the streets. Maybe he was more than that. Maybe he was sent by a power that is great and wise, to minister to a soul too comfortable in themselves. Maybe God looked down, called an Angel, dressed him like a bum, then said, \u201cgo minister to that man cleaning the car, that man needs help.\u201d Don\u2019t we all?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[singlepic id=958 w=600 h=426 float=center] I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car. I had just come from the car wash and was waiting for my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18516"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18518,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18516\/revisions\/18518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}