Facing A Dilemma

Recently I faced a dilemma. I asked my co-workers and I asked the members of the Sunday school class I am in if they thought I did something admirable or something stupid. I wonder what you think, too.

I don’t have the best eyes in the world. The way I resolve my challenge is to place a prism on one of my lens. To place it on my glasses, I put a couple of drops of rubbing alcohol on my lens and then place the prism on it. As the alcohol dries, the prism sticks to my lens and I can see like a normal person. Without this invention, I would have a lens as thick as a door on one side of my face. And while having correct vision is a great topic to write about, it is not the topic I will write about today.

My topic is about what do we do with money that we find? (By now you are experiencing one of my Attention Deficit Disorder experiences. How did he go from glasses to money? You’ll see.)

Because of my eyes, I walk looking at the ground a lot of the time to keep from tripping. While this causes me to miss a lot in my surroundings as I walk, there are times I find things on the ground – money.

I admit the money I find is usually pennies. Sometimes I find nickels and dimes. In my dreams at night, I sometimes dream of finding quarters! (Remember when you could get a candy bar and soft drink for a quarter?)

Months ago I went to get my salad for lunch at a grocery store. As I opened my car door and looked down to get out of my car, there on the ground was a $20 bill. I never dreamt of finding 20 dollars. I limited my dreams to a quarter.

I picked up the $20, and went on into the store to get my salad for lunch. But before I got my salad, I went and gave the $20 to either the store manager or the assistant manager. I’m not sure which. I told him I found it in the parking lot next to my car. I asked him to give it to whoever comes in looking for a lost 20 dollar bill. He took the $20. He didn’t ask my name; he didn’t even say “thank you.”

As I was leaving the store, he said, “No one has claimed it yet.” I simply smiled and walked out.

I could not keep the money. It was an easy decision for me. It belonged to someone else. I know what it is like to not have money when you need it. All I could think of was someone needing that twenty dollars for groceries or gas for the week and coming back to look for it at the store.

I asked folks at work and in my Sunday school class what would they have done. Naturally some said I should have kept it. They rationalized it like this – If the store manager had taken the upper road, he would have asked for my name and told me to come back later and if no one claimed it, it would be mine. He didn’t.

I’m curious. What would you have done? What would Jesus have done? “And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.”