In the eight years I have been writing this column (I can't believe it), I have quoted from many books, magazines, movies and people as a way of making the point for the column. But today, I would like to, for the first time, use a guest columnist.

Dr. Bruce Blumer is director of the Methodist Foundation for South Dakota, and this story has been making the rounds since it happened. This week it showed up in his newsletter in print and it is worth more than a few quotes. This is his story (printed with his permission):

"For those of us who don't think God has a sense of humor or that God doesn't teach us, we aren't paying attention. God got my attention recently.

"I was driving on Highway 18 on the Rosebud Reservation. I came over a ridge and saw something along the side of the road; it looked like a person but was moving strangely. As I got closer, I realized it was a man, with a cane, who had great difficulty walking and basically bobbed back and forth from leg to leg. It was very cold and windy and he was hitchhiking.

"So I began to play the game of 'why I can't pick you up.' I'd been traveling and my car seats were filled with stuff. I didn't know this person. Could he even get in my car as his legs looked stiff. Maybe he had some kind of appliance for his legs. I'd had a bit of a scary experience once with a hitchhiker when I was in high school. Surely there would be other cars behind me on this lonely, desolate, freezing-cold stretch of highway in the middle of nowhere. And I drove on.

"My destination was Mission. I was asked to serve on a panel that was hosted by our Tree of Life Ministry. The process was to get community members to organize and plan for their own future. My role was to talk about foundations and fundraising issues.

"Over a cup of coffee, I met with the coordinator for this process and we talked about his expectations for me and this project. We talked about the tough issues of isolation, prejudice in our communities and in our own churches, and trying not to make this just another plan that led to another false hope.

"About an hour or so later, a woman appeared at the door of Tree of Life Ministry with a man - a cold, hungry man who had a very distinctive walk. A man I'd left at the side of the road and a man that ended up in the very same place that I ended up. Then God showed me how people are meant to be treated in the form of

Russell and Donna Masartis, directors of the ministry (and one of the ministries supported by the foundation). They simply did what they always do - they fed the man, gave him warm gloves to wear and looked for a place for him to spend the night.

"I'd spent the afternoon talking. Not doing, just talking. Of all the places that man could have ended up, he ended up in the right place, with warm, caring, gentle people - and a man who got a lesson and who passed by an opportunity to be Christ."

This story says it all, for we who have used the hundreds of excuses that we use when we don't have time for, or interest in doing the right thing. Bruce's story is my story on too many

occasions. And I know better, because when I have traveled Highway 212 on the Cheyenne Indian Reservation, I know clearly that were I to have car trouble or need help, some Native American would come along and help me. That's just the way they are. But I, too, often have reasons for not doing as they would do for me.

May we never forget to "in everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12) … even when it's difficult.

Happy travels!

The Rev. Lin Jennewein is a retired United Methodist minister, affiliated with Rapid City's Canyon Lake United Methodist Church. She can be reached at linjen@rushmore.com.