target cart

 

 

 

 

 

So, I am sitting in the park reading and luxuriating in the noontime warmth of the October sun.  Fully engrossed in my book I hear...
ta-tunk, ta-tunk, ta-tunk... in the near distance.  I look up from my paperback and notice a red Target shopping cart being impelled by a man along the sidewalk; his belongings overstuffed into this modest red cart.  I instantaneously glance back to my book.  I'm assuming that he will solicit me for money and contemplate a justifiable retort (excuse).  The red Target shopping cart slips by  uneventfully and I can hear ta-tunks ebbing into the distance.  Then it hits me!  I didn't have the civility to recognize this individual.  I didn't glance long enough to even recall his features.  I felt ashamed that I didn't simply take one moment and acknowledge this man as a human being.

But, here's the kicker-the book I was reading was crazy love-OVERWHELMED BY A RELENTLESS GOD by Francis Chan.  The quote I had highlighted not 10 minutes earlier was "I believe He wants us to be known for giving of our time, our money, and our abilities-and start a movement of "giving churches."  So, gentleman with the Target shopping cart would you please forgive me?  God, would You please forgive me and grant me another opportunity...so simple...yet so powerfully tender and meaningful?