If It's Hard to Know the Right Thing to Do, Prayer Helps

I can’t help wondering sometimes if I should help someone. Surely you’ve felt the same. You see people all the time who appear to need help. The problem is, SHOULD you help them and HOW do you help them?

Case in point, Sam and I often see this woman with a walker and a dog at the park. I watch her wrestle that walker around and attempt to walk her dog and pick up its poop and all that, and I fear every time I see her that the dog is going to accidentally trip her or knock her down and no one will be around to pick her up. I did ask her one day (lamely I suppose) if she needed help, but she said “No.” I was glad, of course that she didn’t ask me to pick up her dog’s poop; he’s not a small dog like Sam.

Another person I run into a lot at the park is a tall Samoan – about 6-3, 200 lbs. – who is mentally handicapped or autistic or something. He bristles if anyone calls him handicapped and he hates being called slow. He’s 37 years old and in pretty good physical shape but he repeats things over and over and over again – sort of like an autistic. He seldom ever forgets anything you tell him, so he’ll replay that information constantly. Not long after I met him we were talking about handicapped people and I happened to mention that I have a niece who is handicapped. He asks me about her every time we see each other and asks me how she is, who takes care of her, does she go to school, and can she drive a car and on and on. He also apparently was bullied when he was young and he’s constantly remembering old fights.

River Jordan has authored a great book

River Jordan explains how she helps people

He told me he fell out of a car when he was three years old and was brain damaged. He’s a really friendly guy and I like him, but he’s at the park every day and I confess after more than a year of walking and talking with him I now avoid him when possible. That isn’t too difficult because Sam and I walk in the morning and the Samoan walks in the afternoon. The thing is, I hate avoiding him because even though he has a family (his uncle’s) to live with he apparently has no other friends. He also can’t get a job because of his handicaps, even though he’d like to work. Our birthdays are only a couple days apart so last year I met him at the park with a birthday cake.

I like to do something nice for people and I’m sure you do too. But how do you know what to do? I’m sure as heck no Mother Teresa. A Face Book friend recently pointed out that we are not called to "do" nearly as much as we are simply called to "be". If we get too busy trying to do good deeds we may miss what God is trying to tell us he wants us to do. I can’t help thinking that one of the things he wants us (at least me) to do is simply pray for people One of the best books I’ve ever read is titled “Praying for Strangers,” by a woman named River Jordan. In her book River Jordan talks about how she got started praying for total strangers, people who looked like they needed help, wherever she went. Praying for Strangers is such a powerful testimony to the needs of the human spirit and how a person can be uplifted with just a simple act. It proves to me that I CAN help others less fortunate than myself. An acquaintance once skeptically laughed at the idea people could talk to God, but you can. I explained to him that’s what prayer was – talking to God. It’s the best way I know of to help others.