Helping Others | Follow Your Gut

Have you ever met someone, or even just observed someone, who you know needed help but you didn’t do anything? I have and those times still haunt me.

I once saw a man punch a woman in the face in the car in front of me at a stop light. I was in such shock that the truck sped away before I could even get a license plate number. I’ve also witnessed a man driving recklessly in a “topless” jeep and screaming at his little boy a few years ago. And still? I did nothing.

I resolved a couple of years ago that I never wanted to be a bystander again and not help people when I know they needed help. I think about both the woman from that truck and that little boy…a lot.

Yesterday my 3 year old and I were at a local fast food restaurant with a play area. There was another little girl and her grandmother in the area. As we ate our lunch, I overheard the other little girl tell her grandmother, “Grandma, I’m so hungry.” Her grandmother replied that she didn’t have any money.

I don’t know their situation, maybe the grandma was just telling the little girl that because she didn’t want her to eat fast food. Maybe they were going to a cookout later. Maybe she had innocently forgotten her wallet. Maybe they had just eaten and had already thrown their stuff away before we got there. I had no idea.

As my daughter played with the little girl, I watched the grandma take several phone calls. On a couple of occasions she got up and went outside to talk to the person on the phone. She looked tired. No, more than tired she just looked worn down. Clearly something was wrong.

Whenever my daughter would run over to take a drink from her cup, the little girl would watch her and then say to her grandma, “I’m so thirsty.”

It was apparent that the little girl really was hungry and thirsty. I sat there looking like I was working on my laptop, but really I was battling an internal struggle waging war within me. Should I say something? Should I help? What to do?

I vacillated between uncomfortableness and an awkward feeling of, “What if the grandma thinks it’s rude and yells at me?”

What finally won out was my “gut”–that voice that we all have inside that tells us when something is really right or just wrong.

I got up to refill my drink cup and on the way casually asked if they needed drink refills (of which they had no drinks sitting on their table). The grandmother shook her head and then looked astonished when I asked if I could buy them something–lunch, on me. She allowed me to buy her granddaughter lunch, but only got a drink for herself.

Later, as they were leaving the grandma stopped and shook my hand, her eyes filling up a little. 

“I’ve never had anyone offer to buy me lunch before. Can I get your information so I can repay you?”

I waved her off.

“Just help someone else next time,” I smiled and shook her frail hand delicately.

I still don’t know their situation, but I do know one thing–her granddaughter left a little less hungry and thirsty that day.

So, when you’re struggling with pride or embarrassment or whatever on whether to help someone, follow your gut. It will never lead you astray.

Tags: giving

Category: Feature, GiveBackIn