The Lunch and The Look...

I just left a board meeting luncheon at a private club atop a downtown bank building. It was a meeting attended by very important people wearing expensive suits and dresses to discuss important Rotary Club events. I exited the elevator, strolled through the important looking lobby with the marble floor and out the door to finish the second half of my day.

As I pulled away from the parking lot, I noticed that I needed fuel so I pulled into a nearby downtown gas station and convenience store. I walked into the store to pay the clerk for the gas that I had pumped when I encountered a strange conversation:

"All I have is $2, give me a break," the lady said as she tried to pry the hamburger she ordered from the hand of the clerk behind the counter. I'll eat a lot of things, but, I've always said the only acceptable food to eat from a convenience store/gas station is one of those nutritious and delicious fried burritos. So it was then I knew that this lady MUST be hungry.

The lady looked terrible. She was rail thin, missing teeth, hair matted, and she smelled worse than she looked. She was obviously drunk or stoned or most likely both as she was unsteady on her feet while arguing.

The lady behind the counter was wearing a nametag on her uniform that said simply, "Mo." She answered her customer, "I've told you not to come in here anymore. You ain't never got the money, and you always act like we OWE you something to eat. PAY OR GET OUT!"

"But I'll pay you the rest tomorrow. Please. Don't be a..." I'll stop there because that's when I decided to get involved. Remember as I mentioned earlier I'm important. I had important things on my schedule that afternoon and I didn't have time to listen to an argument between a gas station clerk and a, "customer."

"Just let me pay for her order and my gas and we'll all be on our way, alright Mo?"

"Mister," Mo said back, "you don't want to do that."

"Ohhhhh yeah, I do. I want to get out of here and it seems as you two are at an impasse."

"A what?" asked Mo as the other lady looked on.

"A standstill. Just let me pay for her burger and my gas and all will be well." I answered.

"The hell it will. It's your funeral though. Your total is going to be $27.93," Mo said with a smart-alecky grin on her face.

That's when things got really uncomfortable. As I reached for my wallet to pay the tab, the lady beside me, for whom I had just bought a hamburger grabbed my hand. Not violently, just to hold my hand in a way that seemed familiar to her and terrifying to me. It was at that moment I realized that my new friend misunderstood my purchase. She thought that I was buying her food as a down payment on services to be rendered later. As hard as I tried I couldn't wrest my hand from hers. Mo handed me the change and grinning ever larger said, "Have a nice day. Good luck."

I couldn't believe how amazingly strong this gaunt woman's hand was. We walked out the door hand in hand as I tried and tried to pry my hand from hers. I finally got my hand free from her and headed toward my pick-up truck then she spoke to me:

"Could you just sit with me while I eat?"

NO! My mind was screaming, NO!!!

"Please sit with me since you paid for my food."

What would Jesus do? I always hated that bracelet. I can't say I'd do the same thing now, but, for some reason I sat down on a parking bumper in front of the convenience store while the womans shaking hands opened the wrapper of her hamburger. I noticed Mo had gotten the other employees to look out the window and laugh as she ate next to her new friend. I hadn't seen an adult scarf down food like that in my life. She ate like she hadn't eaten in days, and I imagine that she hadn't. We didn't speak. I only listened to her eat that cheap food that I would only imagine made her sick later.

She finished her food after only a few minutes and I stood up to leave. She grasped my hand again and I was filled with a sense of dread I've known only a few times, and this time I hadn't done anything wrong. I turned back to her to say, "I've got to go back to work.""

Before I could say a word she looked at me with a look in her eyes that I'd never noticed.

She said, "Thank you."

It was thanksgiving with a look of humanity. Broken, defeated, hurt, and still hurting humanity. I didn't realize beforehand that she was a human being, I thought of her as a burden in the way of the rest of my day. I thought she was nothing but a bum, a whore, or worse. It was in her look that I realized she was someone's baby girl.

Life happened to her, and it happened badly. She surely made choices that led her to the place that she needed a stranger to buy a cheap meal for her so she could then get her next fix. But I knew not the road that she had trod to be where she was. Her look was one I hadn't seen before.

The look was one that I read, "thank you for feeding me and seeking nothing in return. Thank you for not hurting me or taking advantage. Thank you for seeing me as a person."

I didn't feed her to be Christian. I didn't buy her lunch to value her. I wanted her out of my way to face the rest of my self-important day. What a day. Only in her humble thanksgiving and the look of pain in her eyes did I realize that she and I were the same.

I learned more from that lady than from many professors. She is someone's little girl who sold herself to the world and it turned out badly. I am someone's child who has also sold himself to the world in many ways, clothed in a navy blue suit. We're all someone's child, we're God's child. We've all sold ourselves to the world in ways, but God loves us, redeems us, and clothes us in His grace and mercy.

I can't believe I did it, but, it's amazing what you can learn from spending a few minutes sitting in a parking lot.