“Pick up my pants.” My friend paused for a moment. “Pick up my pants.” She heard the voice say a bit louder as she walked towards the elevator with her husband. “Please pick up my pants?” Turning around she looked into the eyes of a man who was assisted by a walker and seemed to be struggling to walk. His pants were on the floor around his feet and he was asking her to help him. She nudged her husband, “Help him.” Her husband began to pull on the man’s pants. The man then looked at her and said, “where is my doctor?’ She began to realize that this man was in need. He seemed to be having trouble and for some reason he had chosen the two of them to help him.

She told me later she thought, “Was this some sort of test, was God trying to tell me something”? She asked the man the name of his doctor and walked with him to the elevator pointing him in the direction of his doctor, and then decided to see him to the door. The man explained on the elevator ride up that he had spinal surgery a couple of months before and could not bend over. When his pants fell down, he didn’t know what to do but he had to ask for help. He expressed his thanks over and over again.

Have you ever asked yourself what Jesus meant when he spoke the words “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?” The message behind these words can be found in every religion in every culture. It is often regarded as the most concise and general principle of ethics. Does this mean going out of your way when someone is in need?

How would you have reacted to this man’s situation? Would you have paused long enough to “pick up his pants” and would you have taken it a step further and shown him the way to his destination? There are times I have looked the other way in a store to avoid people I might not want to see that day. I hope if I am ever faced with this kind of opportunity like I described in this story, I respond like my friend did. I want to go the extra mile for people.

©️2023 Marsha L. Brown