By George

When I've come to Athens in the past, I've thought all about the fun things I want to do, the people I want to see, and the places I want to eat. It's one of my favorite places to visit and I love coming back and seeing all the places where I hung out when I was a student at the University of Georgia. However, this is the first trip where I have felt more aware of the reality of many of the people who call this city home.

This past Thursday, Nicole and I went and walked around the UGA campus and also walked over to downtown Athens for a bit. As we were walking away from the arch, we passed a man sitting at a table who started up a conversation with us. His name was George and he sounded like he'd fallen on some tough times - being a Vietnam War veteran and having some health problems. He told us that he wrote a newsletter about current and historical events in Athens and it was certainly an interesting read for many various reasons. As we finished reading his newsletter (scrambled sentences/thoughts on a piece of paper) and began to head down the street, George asked if we'd be willing to buy him a hamburger from Five Guys, which was right beside where he was sitting.

I'll admit, I've never felt compelled to buy things for people that are homeless/unemployed/struggling and I have always looked down on people for asking. I act like I have the world figured out even though I've been dependent on my parents my entire life and have never really had to deal with difficult circumstances. But, I've started to realize that I'm not living out my faith in a biblical way when I care about helping the people that are struggling in Haiti but I don't care about helping the people that I come across on a daily basis here in America. If I really believe the gospel and I believe what Jesus talked about in Matthew 25:37, then I need to really think about how I respond to situations like what we had with talking to George. So God brought George our way when we were walking around Athens and he wanted a hamburger for lunch and God knew that was something we could help George with - and I think George has good taste for wanting Five Guys! I'm hoping God will remind me more and more of these opportunities that he constantly provides.