aerasio

Act

I was sitting on the grass near the bus stop yesterday, waiting for the bus to come. It was getting close to nightfall, like how Singapore looks at around 5 or 6. A black guy came along, he looked a little disheveled, clothes a little worse for wear, but he had a big smile on his face. "How you doing?" he asked me as he walked in my direction, smiling. "I'm good, how bout you?" I replied, removing the earphones from.. well.. my ear.

The details are fuzzy now remembering it, but he said something about not doing too well. We exchanged names and shook hands. He told me that him and his wife had just got into St Paul from Michigan, and that they had no friends here and were looking for a place to stay the night. He asked me whether I knew where the Salvation Army was, explaining in case I didn't know that it was a shelter for 'people in need'. I listened, glancing occasionally to his left to watch for the bus. His wife had him had been walking since 5 am in the morning, he told me as he continued, she apparently was a chef, a diabetic one at that, and the walking had been very hard on her. I glanced around, but she was nowhere in sight, a tinge of suspicion arose in my mind.

He asked me for help, "anything at all, anything you can give me, I'll take anything" his voice had quietly risen, a subtle tone of urgency underneath it. The bus arrived, cutting him short. "I'd love to help" I said "but I'm an international student here and I don't have anything on me, sorry man". He walked away without a word, disappointment written on his face. My excuse ringing in my head, I ran up the bus to the impatiently honking bus driver who was glaring at the black man, and promptly forgot about the whole thing...

As I think about it now, I wonder, did I do the right thing? I had money in my pocket, a bus card in hand, I could've helped him... but I didn't. At the same time I wonder, why wasn't he with his wife, comforting her, and why would he tell such things to a stranger? The obvious common sense answer: he was a fake trying to con me into giving him some cash.

Or maybe he was genuine, and was desperately in need of help.

I wondered. And, even if he was a fake, even if all he was trying to do was to get some money from me, should I have turned him away? Jesus called us to be servants right? To do unto others as you would have others do unto you, the golden rule. Should I not have tried to help him in anyway I could, regardless of his intentions? And if they were ill, should I not have turned my other cheek and helped him anyway?

Can I in good conscience say that I did the right thing?

The answer seems to be a no to me, a humbling proof of my selfishness, my worldliness. Knowing this now though, if I had the chance to go through something like that again, what would I do?

What would you do?


As I sat on the bus on the way home, listening to my I-River, the song "Down Once More" from Phantom of the Opera ended, to be replaced by "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. 'What a change of mood', I thought, 'bar maybe some heavy metal that's probably as dramatic a difference as you'll find in music'.

Oh how quick man is to forget his own iniquities.

So said Aerasio at 11:56