Think Twice

In 1989 Phil Collins released a song called "Another Day in Paradise" The title conjures up sounds of steel drums,  smells of coconut oil and dreams of sand and surf, but it's not about that at all. It is a song about a man who simply crosses a busy street ignoring the requests for help from a homeless woman. The lyrics go so far as to say, "He walks on, doesn't look back, He pretends he can't hear her, Starts to whistle as he crosses the street, Seems embarrassed to be there."
When this song came out I was leading a youth group at my church. MTV and videos of songs were very popular at the time, and so we decided we would use the concept of the storytelling video, but make it live at church. Several of the youth dressed as homeless and planted themselves in the congregation. The scene was set with one of our youth playing a wealthy business man, and one of our teens playing the homeless girl. He went on to his Power lunch in "Paradise" while she stood outside the large picture window shivering in the cold. It was very thought provoking. What brought this memory back to me? My daughter, actually.
About 3 weeks ago I got a text from my youngest. It read, "I just gave a milkshake to a homeless man." She had actually purchased the milkshake to take to her aunt, but on the ride downtown on a very hot day, she saw the man standing on the corner. She stopped and walked back to him, and asked him if he would like a milkshake. His response to her with a big smile was that he would love a milkshake! She gave it to him. He thanked her, and she went on with her day and he his. I asked her later about it, and she said something to me that really made me "think twice," (words that are repeated over and over in the Phil Collins song.) She told me that even if she didn't have anything to give him or any other homeless person for that matter, they are still people. I can't just drive by and ignore them like they're nothing. I should at least smile at them. She's absolutely right! I will admit that I have usually been the rushing business man in the song who pretends I can't see or hear the person. How many times have all of us pulled up to a light and tried to get as close to the intersection as possible, sometimes even nosing out a bit into traffic because there was a homeless person on the corner with a sign and we didn't want to have to catch their eye. We stayed in the paradise of our air-conditioned car with the windows rolled up praying the light would hurry up and turn green. I'm not preaching here, just stating what I've done 1000 times. Georgi changed my perspective. Do I know why people are standing on the street corner asking for help? No. Do I really need to? No! Am I wealthy? Far from it, but I can certainly afford to give a person who is out on the street a bottle of water on a hot day or a warm drink when it's freezing outside. Think Twice before you move on pretending that human being doesn't exist. The world would be a better place if we all did!