Silence of the Cold

SILENCE OF THE COLD
Food, a warm place to be, and money! These are all things that I take for granted. At noon today, I started to think about lunch and what I wanted to eat. I brought soup with me but I complained to myself that I wasn't in the mood and I wanted something more so I decided on Subway. As I walked out the door and complained to myself that it was cold and I forgot my gloves and then I complained about the sewer smell that is coming from the street, I walked about 40 feet and I was started by something I saw out of the corner of my eye.
As I looked over to my left, I realized that a homeless man was curled up and asleep in a small corner near a place where the sewer steam was coming up. I was struck at how small he looked since he was able to curl up so tightly and it struck me that he could do that because he was so skinny from not eating enough. I realized how cold he must have felt to curl up in a corner where the sun was shining down and the sewer steam was providing some heat for him. To him the sewer steam did not smell bad but instead it provided him with warmth.
It hit me like a ton of bricks that I can be so ungrateful and selfish at times. Here I was complaining about the cold and worried about what I wanted for lunch but here was a man who did not have a coat or gloves and all he had was a small bottled water and a small, broken cookie wrapped in a napkin beside him. I was worrying about what I wanted to eat but he is worried about when and if he is going to eat today. How ungrateful can I be?
It is amazing how God uses circumstances in my life to snap me back to reality and to realize that I need to be thankful every moment of every day for everything that I have. I have everything in life that I need.
Friends, family, a car that runs, clothes on my back, and money.
In case you are wondering, I did buy him a footlong sandwich, chips, cookie and a water. As I placed it beside him, he was sleeping so soundly that he did not look up or move. He will never know who gave it to him and I will never know if he ate it but I will never forget that moment of silence when I put the sandwich by him and I felt sadness and worry for him.
I wanted to share this because I hope that the next time you see someone who is homeless, don't think about why they are there or how they could get themselves out of homelessness if they worked. Instead, ask yourself..do I have anything that I can give to them? A kind word, a smile, a soft drink, water, food, a coat, gloves or whatever you have that they could use.