The fork in the road...which one will you choose?

I am going to go out on a limb, and say that most people reading this blog or any other for that matter, are people watchers. Why else would you be peering through a hole in cyberspace to read someone elses' thoughts? It's OK, I am a people watcher sometimes myself.

I sat down on the Subway this afternoon, and a young lady sat down directly across from me. When she sat down, she hung her umbrella next to her, and then pulled out a large book, that appeared to have been carried around for quite some time. Obviously, I was people watching this afternoon. What surprised me, is that this young lady watched, and digested info about people more than anyone I have ever witnessed. I felt that within just a few short minutes, she knew more about me, and about the other passengers than we knew about ourselves.

I caught her stealing the title of the book I was reading, the song title on my IPOD, and the name and company off the identification badge of the person sitting next to her. Her eyes and mine locked a few times, she knew that she herself was being watched by someone else. I could tell that it made her uncomfortable. After noticing me, anytime she started studying people, she would lock eyes with me again, wondering why I was watching her.

What was that young lady going to do with all of the information so digested. Is she going to do research on the book I was reading because I looked like an interesting person? Would she see the movie Oceans 13 because two teenagers were talking about how great it was? Was she planning to post under missed connections to learn more about the man whose name she stole from his ID badge? What will she possibly do with all that information?

What do we do with what we see when we watch someone else, or when we read someones blog? If they write about depression, do you consume the information, and wonder what the next entry will be? What about when you watch the homeless person who you pass everyday? You watch, but what do you do? This is a big fork in the road. What should we do when we watch people? You have two choices...you can watch them, and let them be...or you can get involved in their lives. This could mean you respond to a depressed blogger with a word of encouragement or a prayer. When you see the homeless person on the corner, feed, clothe, or pray for them.

That is my challenge to you. Do something for others, happy or sad, you can have a positive impact on their lives. I should probably touch on tithing briefly. For those of you who don't know what tithing means, it is setting aside a portion of your money for God's work. Most often it is brought up when speaking about giving to churches on Sunday. I'm not a tither. I like my money, it's hard to give it away. I struggle with it, because I know God wants my fruits to work for Him. I have been better about the issue since starting Give Your Gifts. It has taken thousands of my dollars, leaving me almost broke, but I am really happy to be doing it. I encourage you to figure out how to tithe.

As a part of my non profit, I have established a food for the homeless program. For only about $35 a week, you can serve 50 meals to the homeless. You buy the cheapest loaves of bread, packages of bologna, make sandwiches and a snack like a banana, pudding, or pop-tart, and put them all in a paper bag. My numbers are right, $35 and three hours of your time will feed 50 people one meal. If you can't afford to pay even that much, then talk to your well to do friends, family, or business partners, and see if they would support you by providing you with $35/month. If you could get just four people to give you $35/month, you would be able to feed 2,600 meals in a year. Three hours and $35 a week. That's it.

Did you really need to spend six hours at the bar spending twice that much money?

Let me know if you would like me to help you start feeding the homeless. I would be glad to point you in the right direction.