Sunday, August 22, 2010

Baffled....

Ok, there's nothing that will drive you to blog than an experience that just blows you away.  Unfortunately, this blew me away in a bad way.  So, after a great weekend of visiting with friends Friday night and driving to Orangeburg to visit and spend the night with family on Saturday for my 30th birthday, Brent, Asher, and I are heading home around 6 this evening.  We take Hwy. 1.  Brent remembers he needed something for work from Lowes so he runs in while Asher and I wait in he car.  We're pulling out of Lowes and see a "clearly" homeless man sitting on the curb across the street.  By "clearly," I mean this man could have been cast in a movie.  Thin, gray hair, shirt that looked as if it were once white, sandals, beard, and dirty all over.  I think to myself, what if that's Jesus or what if this is a test.  I mention to Brent that that man sure looks homeless.  He responds, "He does, do you want to buy him a meal?"  I'm thinking WOW, I'm so glad he thought that too.  I mean, the man was sitting on a curb right beside a Popeye's Chicken so we decide to head through the drive through.  We decided on a three piece chicken meal with mashed potatoes and gravy, a biscuit. and sweet tea.  Sounds yummy and filling to me!?!  So, the man is sitting on the curb beside a stop light on my side of the car.  I roll my window down and say something like, "We thought you might like something to eat" while holding the bag and drink out of the window.  I had planned on ending the conversation with something like, "God bless you, have a great day."
     Ok, this is where things get interesting....his reply is something like, "What do you got?"  Me: "Chicken and mashed potatoes with a sweet tea." Him: "Hmm, no biscuits in there?" Me: "Um, I believe there is one biscuit. Sir, do you not like chicken?" Him: "Not really" (I believe that at this point Brent chimed in with something like "We were trying to do something nice, don't take it if you don't want it."  Brent was a little more perturbed than me.  I was still in a small state of shock.)  So, I had already handed over the bag while he's telling me he doesn't like chicken.  He said, "Well let me see" as he begins to open the box and I stare at his black hands, nails, and crust in the inner corners of his eyes.  Me:  "Sir, if you don't want the meal please hand it back to me and I'll get out what you'd like" because as I mentioned before, I like chicken and Brent and I had planned on eating left-overs at home but I wouldn't mind eating chicken instead.  Well, too late, he's in the box and I knew at this point the meal was all his because I was not taking it back.  I still held the tea in my hand as Brent had had too much.  I'm not sure if we said anything or if we just pulled forward to pull away as he said, "wait, I want the tea!"  As we continued to pull out he screamed, "F*** Y** B****!"  All while swinging the bag of food over his head into the near by flower bed behind him. 
     Oh my goodness...first of all, I've never been told the F Y part.  Second of all, I don't believe I've ever been called a B!  I'm SO non-confrontational and do not like friction or disagreement.  I was in shock!  Brent drove down the road a little ways and turned back around to see what the man was doing.  Well, as we went back by he was enjoying the mashed potatoes.  So, here's where I'm lost.  Did we really intend to bring joy and nourishment and cause anger and hatred in the process?  Was Satan using this man to make us think twice about doing good deeds for strangers in the future?  I just don't know where everything went wrong?  If it were just me, you bet, that man would have his tea and I would have pulled away in shock for his lack of appreciation.  Brent's opinion, the man needs to be taught a lesson on gratitude.  I don't know who's right out of Brent and I but I do know that this man was wrong.  As I mentioned before, this incident just has me baffled and saddened so I just had to share.  Please don't let this story stop you from thinking, "What would Jesus do?" in certain situations.  I do, however, hope that your story has a much happier ending...