I'm drinking a coke right now at about 11pm at night. I bought it at a gas station about 30 minutes ago even though we have plenty of coke here at home...

Tonight I had done some reading at home. Afterwards, I was a little bored, but also wanted to do some thinking, so I went out driving. On the way back, I decided to fill up the car at an Exxon off of I-35. Nothing out of the ordinary, I had filled up here many times before, but tonight was a little different. As I was finishing at the gas pump, a man approached me. I had seen him loitering by the gas station building when I pulled up, and he had looked over at me a few times as I was pumping gas. Though he looked very scruff and unkempt, he was very polite and asked if he could bother me for a few minutes. I said sure and he proceeded to tell me that he had been sleeping underneath the Oltorf bridge and hadn't had anything to eat all day. He asked if I could help him out with anything. Now, having lived off of St. Paul Street at Hopkins for two years, I was used to homeless people asking me for help. In college we would help whenever we could, but we made it a point not to just give out money because Baltimore had a very serious drug problem. We introduced ourselves, his name was Bubba. I told Bubba that I could buy him some food in the Exxon station. We walked in and I just asked him to pick out some stuff.

It seemed like he was uncomfortable with taking charity, as he kept asking if it was okay to buy this, or buy that. I had to reassure him a couple times that it was okay to get whatever he wanted/needed to eat. In fact, to make him feel a little more comfortable about buying stuff, I headed to the freezer and grabbed a coke for myself while he got himself a Dr. Pepper. While we were wandering around the store, he told me that being homeless had left him very humbled, and that he was trying his hardest to survive. In fact, he said he had gotten a job doing some painting work, but the job wouldn't start until Jan 5th. Seemed like contract work, rather than full time, but I didn't ask him more about it. As the cashier was ringing up the food, I grabbed a bottle of water and gave it to her to put in his bag.

Bubba and I walked out and he continued to thank me for helping him. I'm not sure what his interaction with others had been all day, but it seemed like very few people had stopped to help him out. It must suck to be stuck out in the cold on Christmas. As we said good bye, he made one last request. He asked if I had any spare change. Now, I know what I just said about not giving out money, but Bubba really seemed down on his luck. Plus, I just had a few nickels sitting in my car's coin holder so I gave them to him. I could see that his eyes had started tearing up. He paused and said to me, "God bless you, Jimmy, and your family, and your friends, and whatever it is that you're doing. Keep doing it."

I drove away humbled by that encounter, and upset that I didn't bring myself to share the Gospel with him when I had the chance. I hope that I get to see him again sometime, so that I can talk to him about Jesus. I also hope that he is okay tonight.