The bottoms of his pants were splashed with mud and it looked as if he had been walking for days. It was raining; he was cold and had already used up the last bit of change that he had been saving. The last thing in the world that the coffee shop owner wanted to do was to let this man inside after closing time, especially at that hour of the night on the wrong side of town.
"Hey man, all I need is to warm up a bit and then I'll go." The homeless man said with his arms crossed and shivering.
The owner had already locked the door to the coffee shop and was halfway to his car before hearing that small voice inside, "Just let him in for a minute, dinner can wait."
The man sat only for a few minutes, but spoke quickly and indifferently about his family, friends and his job- all things that he had recently lost. The man was bitter and misplaced. He blamed everyone else for his desperate situation.
Offering the man a cup of coffee, the shop owner was able to spend some time talking with him and challenged him to forgive the people in his life that he felt wronged him. He also simply shared the love of Christ and showed the man stories in the Bible where God was able to take lives of poverty and use them to do great things.
Given a few dollars, the homeless man left the coffee shop that night unwilling to submit his life to God.
Almost two years passed and the coffee shop owner was again shutting down for the night. A last minute phone call surprised him. But it was the caller on the other end that surprised him even more. The voice explained how the owner helped him on a rainy night a few years before and had openly shared Jesus. The once homeless man was now living for Christ and operated a street ministry in a different town. The ministry was called "A Second Glance."
"Hey man, all I need is to warm up a bit and then I'll go." The homeless man said with his arms crossed and shivering.
The owner had already locked the door to the coffee shop and was halfway to his car before hearing that small voice inside, "Just let him in for a minute, dinner can wait."
The man sat only for a few minutes, but spoke quickly and indifferently about his family, friends and his job- all things that he had recently lost. The man was bitter and misplaced. He blamed everyone else for his desperate situation.
Offering the man a cup of coffee, the shop owner was able to spend some time talking with him and challenged him to forgive the people in his life that he felt wronged him. He also simply shared the love of Christ and showed the man stories in the Bible where God was able to take lives of poverty and use them to do great things.
Given a few dollars, the homeless man left the coffee shop that night unwilling to submit his life to God.
Almost two years passed and the coffee shop owner was again shutting down for the night. A last minute phone call surprised him. But it was the caller on the other end that surprised him even more. The voice explained how the owner helped him on a rainy night a few years before and had openly shared Jesus. The once homeless man was now living for Christ and operated a street ministry in a different town. The ministry was called "A Second Glance."
I challenge you. Be consciously aware of those around you and be willing to give a second glance to someone you would normally ignore. During His ministry, Jesus Himself was skilled at "seeing the unseen." These were the moments that He cherished. These were the moments when He was able to effectively bring about change in another.
It is found in the moments when we hear that quiet voice asking us to act, asking us to turn around and help, that we can truly be used of God. Sometimes our testimony is the most powerful, when we simply bother to take a second glance.
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