In a discussion on the power of old-fashioned hospitality Max Lucado shares this personal story:A few months ago I was sitting at the red light of a busy intersection when I noticed a man walking toward my car.
He stepped off the curb, bypassed several vehicles, and started waving at me. He carried a cardboard sign under his arm, a jammed pack on his back.
His jeans were baggy, his beard was scraggly, and he was calling my name: “Max! Max! Remember me.”
I lowered my window. He smiled a toothless grin.
"I still remember that burger you bought me."
Then I remembered.
Months, maybe a year earlier at this very intersection, I had taken him to a corner hamburger stand where we enjoyed a meal together. He was California bound on that day.
"I'm passing through Texas again," he told me. The light changed, and cars began to honk.
I pulled away, leaving him waving and shouting, "Thanks for the burger, Max."
I'd long since forgotten that meal. Not him. We never know what one meal will do.
Source
Max Lucado, Outlive Your Life Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010, 58-59.
Related
When Max Lucado Encountered Mother Teresa, SFS, 8 October 2010.
When Max Lucado Forgot the Bread, SFS, 8 October 2010.
Finding Father Benjamin: A Fable by Max Lucado, SFS, 5 October 2010.
Becoming More Ourselves, SFS, 16 January 2007.
Learning to Listen, SFS, 10 September 2006.
Geoff Pound
Geoff Pound’s new book on gratitude is described at this link: Talk About Thanksgiving.
Image: “I'd long since forgotten that meal. Not him. We never know what one meal will do.”