Image Source Pixabay
Every morning of afternoon, depending on what shift I'm working, I pray for God to put someone in my path that I will have the opportunity to help. I have prayed this prayer for most of my adult life and, more times than not, the prayer is answered. Sometimes it is someone in dire danger who needs a protector. Sometimes it is someone in the grip of depression who needs a friendly ear. Other times it is someone who doesn't know they need help, want help, and fights every effort to help them. Today, it was just a guy who needed a ride.
Anyone who has read my posts will quickly learn that I am a cop and have been one for over 20 years. During my tenure I have seen the absolute worst that humanity has to offer. I have experienced how cruel humans can be to each other and it seems, at times, we actually enjoy inflicting pain on each other. In stead of making me cold or calloused, I have tried my best to become more compassionate and understanding to the individual plight a person may be experiencing. I have learned that what is nothing to me could be a life-altering event to someone else. I try to always help others when I can and sometimes that is just having an open mind and heart to listen.
I am currently assigned to graveyard and I end my shift around seven a.m. and start the short trip home. I am exceeding blessed that my department provides us with take-home patrol units as this saves on gas and wear-and-tear on my personal vehicle. As I am headed down my usual route home, I round a curve and see a man walking. It has been my experience that anyone that is walking this early in the morning has a very important place to be. The man was a young black male with long dreads and I am a bald white male cop. Society and the media is doing it's absolutely best to force two people like us to hate and fear each other, but all I saw was a guy who needed a ride and he saw an answer to a prayer. I passed him, I waved and he waved back as I was turning my car around to go back and check on him.
It turns out he was having car trouble and HAD to get to work by any means necessary or risk losing a position on a construction crew he had traveled from Mississippi to work with. I told him to jump in and I would take him to the job site. He looked at me astonished and the climbed in the front seat. We chatted back and forth a bit and he teased about how he never thought he would be in the front seat of a police cruiser and I mentioned that it was much nicer up here than in the back. He asked if he could put the experience and our picture on Snapchat and of course I said he could. He said he wanted people to know that all cops were not bad and that there is good and bad in every group. We both know how damaging sweeping generalizations of groups can be and I was very fortunate to have shared this fleeting moment in time.
Now, I didn't pick up this man as a publicity ploy or for the image of the police. To be honest, I forgot I was in my patrol car and I would have stopped and picked the guy off-duty as well. I'm glad if it helped this man see police in a different light, but I saw another human I though may need my help and I helped. It is as simple as that and it can be that simple for you too. If were as a society were more focused on seeing people instead of labels and preconceived notions that we are told have, we would solve so many of the problems plaguing our species at the moment. I will continue to pray my prayer each day and I am so thankful and blessed when the prayer gets answered because for the most part I get to meet extraordinary people in difficult situations just like this guy.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://papacrusher.vornix.blog/2018/07/07/place-someone-in-my-path/
All photos and videos are my own creation unless otherwise noted.
Join us 
Animation By 
All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter,
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
-Tolkien