Friday, November 5, 2010

Gentle, Full of Love, yet Strong and Courageous

My company fitness center has a Friday morning Yoga class at 6:45 that I like to take. For me to participate, however, I need to be on the RTA Rapid that leaves the Brookpark station at 6:10 AM. Since the next one doesn't come along until 6:30, and it is about a 20 minute trip to Tower City.

Well this morning as I walked through the station, there was a young man jingling some change in his pocket. He told me he needed to buy a pass and was 50 cents short. I gave him a dollar. I proceeded to walk out onto the platform and notice that there was nobody there. My watch said 6:10 but the train must have been a few minutes early.

So no Yoga for me today. Knowing I had a long wait, I walked back into the (heated & well lit) train station.

Several minutes later, after a few more people had showed up, the guy who I gave the dollar to approached a woman and used the same story. He was still short 50 cents! Maybe he didn't recognize me when I walked out and back in?

Anyhow, I spoke up. "Dude, you were 50 cents short, and I gave you a dollar. How can you still be 50 cents short?" He looked at me and said, "My mistake."

"How many more people are you going to ask?" was my next question. "No one", he said. He stared at me for a couple minutes and I stared right back.

Then he walked away and a different woman said to me, "Thank you."

Once on the train, I was reading my daily Bible study verses. Today's verse for meditation is 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline". The prayer for today ended with, "Help us to be gentle and full of love, yet strong and courageous."

I felt I had already been "gentle and full of love", when I helped this brother in need by giving him a dollar. Then when I discerned his lying ways, I responded by being "strong and courageous."

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