Breaking The Rules

Breaking The Rules! It's not something you teach your kids and being a conformist, it is certainly not within my nature. However, early on in my ministry, when I was touring different facilities who minister to the poor, one of the workers told me that if the Holy Spirit leads you to help someone, then it doesn't matter what the rules are. Which leads me to this afternoon.

A man, who I helped last year, came in for gasoline assistance. My ministry assistant warned me before he came in that he did not have the proper documentation required to receive assistance. I told her that I would probably send him away to get the proper paperwork. He came into my office coughing and not feeling well which usually means for my sake and his I get them out quickly.

As I usually do, I asked him how he was doing and he proceeded to tell me about his friend, whom I also knew, who was murdered three days earlier. He was surprisingly stone faced as he told me the story of how the crime happened and how he held his dying friend in his lap and encouraged him to hang on while they waited for the parametics to arrive. Before long, thiry minutes had passed as I listened to the heart wrenching story and how he felt so numb to just about anything and anyone. I told him that what he was experiencing was normal for someone who was grieving and that I was willing to walk through his grief with him. He immediately teared up and began to cry. After he gained some composure, he told me that this was only the second time he cried since the incident occurred and how much he appreciated the opportunity to talk about his friend. He wiped his eyes and gathered his keys, shook my hand, and told me he would call me later to let me know how he is doing.

I asked what he needed the gas for and he told me he was going to go tell some of his friends what had happened. I gave him the gas assistance and told him the rules would apply next time.