Artwork by Keizie

Looking out the window one Sunday morning while I was working, I noticed a homeless man standing on the corner in front of a church. He stood with his dog, which was seemingly his only companion, holding up a sign saying “down on my luck, just need a second chance…any help is welcomed.” I watched as car after car drove by. Nice cars might I add. Cars that looked liked the people inside them definitely had a few dollars to spare. I then watched the people, dressed to impress, walk into the church not paying any attention to the man standing just at the entrance with his dog. An hour passed, and the scene didn’t change. The man was still standing there with the dog, and people were still filling up the parking lot. He didn’t get so much as a hello. I took it upon myself to introduce myself, give the man 50 bucks, and took him to breakfast. I’m sure avoidance of temptation was part of the sermon that day, as it seems to be a part of every church sermon in someway. I wondered after it was all said and done, if anyone in that church knew about the other side of temptation. The temptation to do good. The temptation to share. The temptation to be empathetic. Maybe, just maybe, if all of the energy we use to avoid the so called bad in temptation, was redirected towards the temptation to focus on something other than ourselves, we might solve every problem everyone of us has ever had. Maybe then I would never again have the chance to see a homeless man standing in front of a church, on a Sunday, surrounded by people who have forgotten, or never knew, just how precious temptation can be. It’s sometimes the only thing we have to let us know what we really desire to be in this life.