DON’T WE ALL?! (A true to life inspiring story, try to read this one. Reply if you want.)

I was sitting in front of the mall while texting. I was waiting for my friends. Coming my way from across the parking lot was what a society considers a bum (beggar). From the looks of him, he has no home, no clean clothes and no money. There are times when you feel generous and there are other times that you just don’t want to be bothered. This was one of those I don’t want to be bothered.



“I hope he doesn’t ask me for any money,” I thought.

He didn’t.

He came and sat on the curb in front of the bus stop but he didn’t look like he could have enough money to even ride a jeep. After a few minutes he spoke. “That’s a very nice phone,” he said. He was ragged but he had an air of dignity around him.

I said, “Thanks,” and continued texting.

He sat there quietly. The expected plea for money never came. As the silence between us widened something inside said, “Ask him if he needs any help.” I was sure that he would say “yes” but I held true to the inner voice.

“Do you need help?” I asked.

He answered in three simple profound words that I shall never forget. We often look for wisdom in great men and women. We expect it from those of higher learning and accomplishments. I expected nothing but an outstretched grimy hand. He spoke the three words that shook me.

“DON’T WE ALL?” he said. I was feeling high and mighty, successful and important, above a bum on the street, until those three words hit me like a twelve gauge machine gun. Don’t we all?



I needed help. Maybe not for jeepney fare or a place to sleep, but I needed help. I reached in my wallet and gave him not only enough for bus fare, but, enough to get warm meal. No matter how much you have, no matter how loaded you are with problems, even without money or place to sleep, you can give help. Even if it’s just a compliment, you can give that. You never know when you may see someone that appears to have it all. They are waiting on you to give them what they don’t have. A different perspective on life, a glimpsed of something beautiful, a respite from daily chaos, that only you through a torn world can see. Maybe the man was just a homeless stranger wandering the streets. Maybe he was sent by a power that is great and wise, to minister to a soul too comfortable from them.



“Go minister to that man who was texting, that man needs help.” DON’T WE ALL?”