Trying to Get By

I met a man named Dan at a gas station standing beside his car with a sign asking for help filling up his tank so he could make it back home. I was able to cover his gas and help him get back on the road, but what impacted me most wasn’t the gas — it was the conversation that followed.

There was a bit of a language barrier, but I asked Dan how I could pray for him. He shared that he was struggling to pay rent, had no money for car maintenance or gas, and had recently been laid off from work. Even though life felt unstable, he was still trying to do everything he could to keep moving forward and get back to Florida.

Sometimes homelessness or financial hardship is easy to make assumptions about from a distance, but conversations like this remind me that many people are simply trying to survive a really difficult season of life. Not everyone ended up in that season purely because of their own choices, but because we live in a fallen world. Many are carrying burdens most people never see, and just trying to move forward.

Before leaving, I prayed with Dan and reminded him that hard seasons are not wasted seasons. God is still present in the valley. God still sees him. God still cares.

Join me in praying for Dan — that God would provide for his needs, open doors for work, and remind him that he is not forgotten.