I re-learned last week that if there’s one thing that annoys me about big cities, it’s their traffic jams. Traffic was thicker than I expected when I reached Grand Rapids, Michigan. All due to construction. I called my friend Eric, who lived 30-40 minutes past the city, that I’d be late that we’d have to leave almost as soon as I arrived to make it to the Grand Rapids Original Swing Society dance. He suggested I just hang out in town and his brother would bring him to the city. I concurred.

I took an exit into downtown and parked at a park across from the Grand Rapids Museum. It was around 5pm. The dance would be at 7pm down the street at Rosa Park Circle. I decided I’d hang out in the park and do my online volunteering with RemedyLive on my new iPhone 4S. I sat on a park bench and signed on.

After about ten minutes or so, a middle-aged black man wearing worn-out clothes and a backpack walked up to me and asked what I was doing in the park. I told him. The he said, “My name is Michael. What’s Yours?”

“Nate.”

“May I sit down?”

“Sure.”

He sat next to me and told me he was from Florida and that he’d lost his job. He said he hated to do this, but asked if I could buy him something to drink. He was homeless and was trying to get a new job to make enough money to move back to Florida with his family.

For at least 30 minutes, he told me his life story. I learned he was a fellow Christian; that he’d worked with a local homeless shelter; and he wandered the park because it was a better part of town. He tried to impress me by reciting Psalm 23 from memory. He admitted he wasn’t perfect and had made mistakes. His requests did increase as time went on. He went from a drink to a meal to a bus fare to use to job hunt.

The whole time I examined him closely for any signs of dishonesty. Ever since I went on a mission trip to New York City in 2004 and saw the many homeless begging on the streets, I’ve not given handouts to such people. Our “tour guide” said all it did was keep them homeless instead of getting them to fix their lives. It’s like the old saying about giving a man a fish instead of teaching how to fish. But Michael was different. While I admit my trusting nature kicked in, my innate “BS detector” sensed no insincerity from him.

When it was all said and done, I (cautiously) took ten dollars from my wallet. I handed it to him and said, “I believe you. I want you to have this so you can buy yourself dinner and get that bus fare. I want you to promise me that’s what you’ll do and that you’ll use it to find a job.”

He laid the money on the bench and replied, “If you have any doubts at all, I want you to keep this.”

I smiled. “I have none. I’m considering this an investment in someone.” I gave the money back to him. I added that maybe someday I’d see him again and learn it was my kindness that helped get him get his life back together.

What made Michael different from the other homeless people I’ve seen is twofold: 1) He genuinely wanted to work so he could improve his life, and 2) he developed a relationship with me. He wasn’t just a face on the street. He befriended me. I heard a bit of his story and vice versa. Friendship has a way of creating vested interest in helping someone else. But what was really important to me was that he wanted to get off the streets. I’m not going to give someone momentary help for a long-term problem. That’s not what Jesus did. He cared for the plight of the poor, but He always helped them with their big problems, which in their cases were spiritual. It’s something I think a lot of “social justice” Christians miss.

Anyway, I’d told him I was from out of town, so he asked what I was doing. I said I was going to the swing dance at 7pm. He said he’d be there with the bus fare as proof of his intentions. I bid him farewell and he thanked me again.

Sadly, I didn’t see him at the dance, but there were hundreds of people there, so I may have missed him.

Regardless, I’m reminded of Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.  One day, He said He would separate the righteous from the unrighteous, telling the former that they cared for him on Earth. They asked how they did that, and Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

My prayer is the small seed I planted with him has blossomed into a new life, one God has redeemed.