“Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?” Mark 8:18
“Will work for food” – words scrawled in black magic marker on a misshapen piece of dirty cardboard. The man on the corner looked rougher than the sign he held against his chest. I looked the other way. If his eyes met mine, embarrassment would haunt me. I tried to ease my guilt with the notion he’d just use donations for drugs or alcohol. Behind the sign, beat the heart of a man in need of more than money. What had happened to lead him to this lot in life? Was he ever held by a mom who loved him? A dad who threw the baseball to him? Did he play chase with other neighborhood children? There’s always a story behind the story. Clueless to his plight, I passed judgment. I had eyes but refused to see. I held up an invisible sign that read, “Too selfish and righteous to care.”
Within a week of the cardboard encounter, my pastor made this statement, “A generous person gives not because he is wealthy. A generous person gives because he is generous.” My mind raced back to the man. My self-centeredness trumped his needs. I chose not to be generous because of my own heart problem not an eye problem. Was there money in my purse during our encounter? I never searched. This wasn’t a monetary issue. My sin was in having eyes, I refused to see.
I pray to change. I want to look into eyes and see souls.