On Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, a man lingered on a street corner, examining a trash bin for items worthy of rescue.\u00a0 He wore long sleeves and slacks\u2014items that had seen their better days\u2014even though the June air approached 75 degrees.\u00a0 While pondering whether or not to approach him, give him a few bucks, or just walk by, I studied his face.\u00a0 An unexpected peace emanated from his eyes.\u00a0 Not a frantic or dejected survival instinct\u2014no, that was not what was at work.\u00a0 Clearly something unusual guided this man\u2019s approach to the work of the moment.<\/p>\n
I forgot about this man within a few minutes, days (for sure), and after a week I doubt I thought about that encounter.\u00a0 A few weeks later, I walked the streets of St. Louis during the ELCA Youth Gathering.\u00a0 One night, I saw the same man doing the same thing on a street corner not unlike the one where I\u2019d met him in Chicago.\u00a0 I confronted him, unable to determine how this was possible.\u00a0 Was he the most ambitious traveling homeless man in the country?\u00a0 Did he migrate from big city to big city when he\u2019d seen all he cared to see?<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw you in Chicago a few weeks ago,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, sir.\u00a0 You must be mistaken,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not,\u201d I said.\u00a0 There was no mistake.\u00a0 \u201cIt was definitely you.\u00a0 Downtown Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man studied my face, a slight grin on his face though his eyes conveyed utter surprise.\u00a0 That evening, he was wearing a cap.\u00a0 He removed it and motioned down his body as if to say \u2018have a good look.\u2019\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know what to tell you,\u201d he said, smiling.\u00a0 \u201cHave a good night.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t offer to help the man that night, just as I hadn\u2019t a few weeks before.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t my place.\u00a0 Something much bigger was at work, something I only understood weeks or even months later.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t recall when I have felt a stronger presence of God on earth, embodied in a man who carried his cross with no shame, sleeping wherever he probably could, living by the grace of God.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just the thing.\u00a0 One can believe it was an ordinary man, and that built on my certainty that the two were not look-alikes, this homeless man happened to garner a way to St. Louis from Chicago.\u00a0 Not only that, but I happened to encounter him of all people in both cities, weeks apart.<\/p>\n
When we\u2019re called to act, we must act.\u00a0 But why is it that those in a position to\u00a0offer help assume that is what is needed?\u00a0 I realized only later that the reason I didn\u2019t offer to help\u00a0the man\u00a0was that he<\/em> was not the one who needed something.<\/p>\n I<\/em> was.<\/p>\n -Aaron Cooper is Writer-Editor for ELCA World Hunger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, a man lingered on a street corner, examining a trash bin for items worthy of rescue.\u00a0 He wore long sleeves and slacks\u2014items that had seen their better days\u2014even though the June air approached 75 degrees.\u00a0 While pondering whether or not to approach him, give him a few bucks, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n