Sandwiches and Chicago

I had set apart a week to just get away and seek God’s heart. One of the days I had set apart I decided to take the train into Chicago and just wander downtown and pray and observe to see what God might say. Before I left I felt compelled by God to make a few sandwiches to take and give away to some homeless people. So I packed a bag with 4 sandwiches and 4 bottles of water.

I decided to get off the train one stop earlier than I usually do. When I got off I began to walk. I traveled five blocks looking for homeless people. There was not one to be found. I walked over one block and began to return back. Still no homeless people. The bag was beginning to get heavy.

I was wondering about how one approaches a homeless person—what do you say? “Hi, I’m Mike, what’s your name?”

I was praying about this when there he was. He was standing on the street trying to sell a magazine called Streetwise. I walked up to him and asked, “Have you eaten today?”

“No,” he replied.

I handed him the whole bag and said, “This is for you.” He looked in the bag then back at me and quietly said, “God bless you.”

I put my arm around him and said, “I just want you to know that Jesus loves you.”

I turned and crossed the street into Millennium Park and I began to cry. Why? It was the understanding that I had helped someone eat one more day and wondered why I had not done it before. It was the thought of a man who felt stuck on the streets with little hope. And it was grasping the knowledge that the one I gave the water and sandwiches to was Jesus—“What you have done unto the least of these…”