There but for the Grace of God go I. Whenever I walk by a homeless person drenched in the rain and close to freezing to death I realize it is only by God's grace that that is not me. Whenever I travel the world I have learned that whenever someone walks up to me and asks me for a penny, a nickel, a quarter,or whatever the money is there I usually give it to them. In fact I have learned to keep a roll of quarters in my car for this purpose. If someone walks up to me I try to give them about three dollars in quarters, enough for a meal to continue to stay alive. In other countries I give less because the cost of living is usually less there. For example when I was in India for 4 months in 1985 and 6 one needed between 50 cents and 1.50 to eat for a day.
I had my own "Conversations with God" the movie kind of experience in Fall 1990 and have not forgotten what it is like to be in a bad financial state in a van, in the cold and freezing with a wife and baby camping in below freezing temperatures when you don't want to. Though I was able to find a way to not only get out of that situation but to live an affluent lifestyle now, I tend to have greater compassion for those who are down and out having been through a very awful 3 months myself.
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