Life is so ironic at times. I'm a professional driver, I work for a car service. Today was supposed to be my day off, but at the last minute my dispatcher asked me to take a 3am trip. In the back of my mind it was the last thing on earth I wanted to do seeing as though it had already been a very trying day for me & also I was running on two & a half hours sleep the past two days. But my desire to be a good employee & make as much money as possible out wayed my exhaustion & I said yes. I had never been to the particular area where I was picking up & I got lost so I stopped at a
7-11 to ask for directions. As I headed back in the right direction I saw a little boy walking down the street leaning over grabbing his throat & his face was kind of red & looked like he had been crying. He looked as if he was between 10-12 & I was thinking to myself, why the hell is a little kid walking down the streets of Chicago at three in the morning? In an instant a million thoughts ran thru my mind. I have to pick up a customer in five minutes, I don't know this kid or what he's in to or whats going on with him, I don't want to get involved cause I've got enough problems of my own, but my actions came down to my final thought. Can I in good conscience leave a little kid on the streets & go on about my day not knowing if he needed help, if he was in danger? My answer was no, so I put the car in reverse & pulled up along side the boy & asked if he was OK. He came up to the car & said no, that he was lost, that he had been throwing up & didn't know where he was. I asked him how he got lost, where he was going & why he was even out there alone in the first place. He just kept saying he was trying to get home & he got lost & he was scared. I had about three minutes until I was to pick up my customer & he was going all the way to the airport. I couldn't just leave this kid, I couldn't be late & I couldn't really take him with me. So I ask if theres anyone I can call to pick him up. He starts to give me a number & then says he forgot the rest. So then he just asked me to call the police. I called the police & they asked where we were so I gave them the street names of the intersection & they asked me to wait with the boy & a squad car would be there in two minutes to pick him up. So I tell the little boy to get in the car to wait for the police. I call my dispatcher while we're waiting to let him know whats going on & he hesitates like he has a problem with what I'm doing, nobody cares, they just want me to get the customer on time. So before I even get off the phone the officer pulls up. The little boy & I get out of the car & walk up to the officer. The officer starts asking the little boy questions & the more questions he asks the more complicated I realize the little boys story is. He had a book bag, he left home in the middle of the night, he rathered me to call the police than his parents, obviously something wasn't right. After I knew he was alright & safe with the officer I got in my car & hauled ass to my pick up. The moral of the story is I know its difficult to get involved when you see someone in trouble because you may not be aware of mitigating circumstances & who wants to put themselves in harms way unnecessarily? But what if I hadn't taken that early morning pick up? What if I hadn't stopped? What if the police hadn't gotten involved? What if no one else had stopped to help him had I not come along? We never know when we may be someones saving grace or ray of light, we never know how God might decide to use us to provide a better day for someone else. The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways.
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