Reaching Into the Gutter

Today I heard a message on John 3:16 and the point was do we have Jesus' heart for the world? It can really be hard to love people. I am reminded of a man I met on the street in down town Dallas. We started talking and he shared a lot about his life story. He shared with me his struggles with alcoholism and trying to learn to do what is right. We talked also about Christ and the church and it was a great conversation. As we were coming to the end of our conversation I offered to pray for him and I did. Then he reached his hand out. I had noticed in the course of our conversation there were some kind of soars on his hand. In my head things were going a million miles a minute. I had just told this man I cared about him, that we were brothers in Christ, but now was I willing to reach out and take his hand? Fortunately, praise God, without a noticeable delay I took his hand in mine, we shook hands, and went on our ways. That is just one instance though. How often are we willing to reach down into the dirty gutter where we typically do not want our hands to go?