This devotion is a lot longer than we ever post, but I can assure you it is well worth the read. It is a true story that happened this week. So please take your time to read it, I know you will be touched and blessed beyond belief.
I have been waiting for a few days to cool off before I posted this. I have been praying about all who were involved and how to let God handle it and not me. This is truly the hardest thing to turn over to God and lay at His feet, because I am human. I will not go into the whole story but will share enough where you get the jest of it. Since when did human beings become just a label, like drunk, drug addict or freak, hopeless, or any of the other labels that people put on other people?” I truly witnessed this Monday July 3rd 2017.
I was off work Monday and Tuesday for the 4th of July holiday. I go in Wednesday morning and my boss tells me to come and watch the security camera video as to what happened Monday July 3rd. He said “Christie you are not going to believe all this” little did I know what I was fixing to see. My boss, and his parents, were at our showroom working and they decided to go and get a bite to eat. While they were gone, we had a “man” that was extremely intoxicated walking around the building of our show room. He was tilting up his bottle of vodka as we watched on the camera and he could not hardly stand up.
As he walked around the parking lot to the front of our showroom, he tried to get in my boss’s truck pulling on the handle and trying to key in numbers on the pad. When he was unsuccessful, he walked up on our door step which is made of stone and has 3 or 4 stairs going up to the door. The “man” was so intoxicated he fell backwards off the steps hitting his back hard enough that he flew into the parking lot and hit his head really bad on the pavement. The “man” laid in our parking lot for 15 minutes before he was able to try to stand back up. All the while the people at the BBQ place right next door to our business was standing in their window which faces our parking lot watching, not doing a thing to help him. They never called 911 or nothing just stood there in the window, waiting on customers, and watched.
Continuing to watch the video, the “man” finally stands up again and comes back up on our porch trying once again to get into our building. He was bleeding pretty bad at this point. Once again when he could not get in, he turned to go off the porch and fell again down the stairs and there he laid at the bottom of the stairs. It is now around 6:00 P.M. My boss and his parents return back from eating, to find this sad bloody “man” at the foot of the steps. Once again, the BBQ owner and employees watched and did nothing. When my boss got out of the car the first thing he did was run up to the man and talked to him, and immediately got down on both knees and asked the “man” if he could pray with him.
My boss and his father kept talking to the man while his mom went in to call 911. They told her they were busy and would get there when they could. I guess because he had been drinking he was not high priority, labeled a “drunk” forgetting he was a human being. As my boss and his father were talking to him, he told them he had just lost his wife and was really having major problems. They helped the man stand up and were helping him to walk to our outdoor patio where there is a bench to wait on the paramedics. Halfway across the parking lot, the “man” asked my bosses father if he could give him a hug, he said of course and embraced the “man.”
He made it to our porch and my boss and his father went in to check the security camera to see what had gone on prior to them getting back from eating. They were speechless to see what had taken place hours before. My boss and his father were going back out to be with the “man,” and as they were going out the door his mother screams “he is falling hurry.” Once again, the BBQ owner and employees looking on and still doing nothing to help. As they ran to the “man” he lost control and fell off backwards on our stone patio hitting his head for the third time on a huge boulder where he split his head wide open. As I watched him lay lifeless on that boulder it took my breath away, and were no words to even say.
There happened to be a doctor in line at the BBQ place and he came running over along with a nurse that too was in the parking lot also. Finally, 45 minutes maybe more, the police decided to show up, along with the paramedics. I watched the video as they took the man away on a stretcher and never knew how much this stranger would affect me. How could so many people look on and do absolutely nothing? My boss did go talk to the owner at the BBQ place which I am guessing did not go well. The owner of the BBQ place told him the “drunk” had come on his property at 4:30 P.M. Why he did not call 911 at 4:30 I will never understand. If he would have, the “man” would have never fallen 3 times.
I understand people do not want to take a chance these days on issues like this, but picking up a phone and calling for help would have been the humane thing to do because minutes could have changed the outcome. You notice I call him a MAN because he too is a child of God who had a very bad problem. We don’t know if this “man” lived or died, and it has bothered me something terrible. I hope this “mans” story will make you think about what to do next time you see something like this. God loves that man just as much as He does all of us. I pray for this “man” every day, and would love to know what happened to him, but needless to say, I will probably never know.
Please never discard a human life to this extent, he was someone’s son, father, or brother and I cannot even imagine someone treating my family in this kind of manner. I have to forgive which I am not to that point yet. I need to forgive the employees at the BBQ place, the onlookers, and the police for taking so long to respond after his mother telling them he was severally injured. Why did this turn out the way it did, because the “man” had a label, he was called a “drunk.” When the police took out his license he too had a name, and it was Michael. Continue to lift this man up and his family and just pray he gets some help for his issues, and for others to treat him as a human, not a label, if he did survive.
I want to say to my boss and his parents, you may have been the only prayer this “man” ever heard, and the only Jesus he has ever seen. Or, maybe it was the first time someone cared enough to get down on both knees in the rain and pray for him. It may have been the only time someone cared enough to embrace this man, letting him know someone cared. I am truly blessed and do not take it for granted to work for the greatest family I have ever known. The Lord saw what you did and trust me, you are going to have a huge crown waiting on you in heaven, and hopefully tons of blessings here on earth.
Doing Life Together,
Ronnie and Christie
Doing Life Together Everyday 