Author and Pastor Erwin McManus was speaking at a youth convention in Florida and brought his family along for a working vacation.

One morning Erwin and his 10-year-old son Aaron walked down to the beach. Although several hundred students were there, most seemed unaware of the physically disabled man who was awkwardly making his way out of the ocean water. The man was a double amputee with specialized crutches. As he attempted to navigate his way back up to the hotel, he fell. He pulled himself up again only to fall a second time. Erwin, pretending not to notice, directed Aaron in the opposite direction. He was fairly certain that his son, like most of the people on the beach, had not noticed the man. Erwin's son surprised him by saying, "I have to go help that man."

McManus writes, "His words pierced through me, and I stood there paralyzed in my hypocrisy…it was clear that this was Aaron's moment. I had missed mine. His compassion moved him to heroism. While Aaron seized his divine moment, I was stuck in a moment I couldn't get out of."

Aaron went down to help the man but was unable to lift him. Several people from the crowd came and worked as a team to get the man up to the hotel deck. Aaron walked back up to his father with tears in his eyes and said, "I couldn't help him. I wasn't strong enough."

McManus writes, "He couldn't see that no one would have helped the man if he hadn't taken initiative."