Down and Out

Most every Sunday I head to church with my wife. Every month or so the pastor starts a new series of messages for us to ponder and think about. This past Sunday we started a new series called Down and Out.

It was a very moving message for me. We watched a video interview of a homeless lady and she told us about the perils of living on the street in our community of Arlington, TX. It was very sad to hear about some of the situations she has gone through, and yet she remains strong and will not give up on life.

After church I was driving over to Walmart and my wife was complaining about how slow and cautious of a driver I am and that she wanted to drive because we had lots to do that morning. So I got pissed off about the whole thing and we exchanged a few choice words with each other.

After leaving Walmart I was furious about her comments. We headed over to Target and she headed into the store. I noticed a bench outside the store next to the employee entrance. "Great", I said, I can go sit down and wallow in my madness!

I hadn't been sitting there more than 5 minutes and a homeless guy appears in front of me pushing a cart. He stops and looks at me and just busts out laughing. He pushed his cart upon the sidewalk and came over and stood right in front of me. All the time he was just laughing. I was thinking...just leave me alone, I'm fuming! He grabs my goatee and busts out laughing again!

The bench was an invitation, so I asked him to sit down and talk to me. I shook his hand, it was covered in dried up silver paint. His clothes were dirty and he had some white stuff all over himself. It looked as though he had immersed himself into a BIG sticky iced cinnamon roll and all the icing had dried up around him.

I asked him what his name was and he insisted he know my name first. I told him my name was
Tony and he replied with Johnny. I shook his rough and silver-stained hand and said, "nice to meet you Johnny". He just laughed! It was a beautiful day, the sky was clear, not a cloud in the sky. I told Johnny, "what a beautiful day it is". He replied back with the same.

We had lots of eye contact. I was wondering what the heck was going on inside Johnny's mind. Given the paint on his clothes and on his hands he had to be high on paint fumes. Nonetheless, Johnny kept me entertained with his laugh and good spirit. He poked and prodded me and would just bust out laughing. It was the darndest thing! Johnny lifted my spirits and removed the funk I was in. Jeeze! What a blessing!

As I sat there I thought that life wasn't as bad as I make it out to be sometimes. Johnny had no care in the world...just sitting there laughing and smiling! I grabbed Johnny's hand and thanked him for getting me out of my funk and making me smile and laugh.

I went into the store. My daughter and wife were at the checkout stand. They asked me what was so funny. I told them that I met a homeless man named Johnny and the guy just made me laugh and feel good. We walked out of the store and Johnny was nowhere to be found. We drove out of the parking lot and Johnny was gone!

Today I received an email from the pastor reiterating the message that he talked about last Sunday. I thought I would reply and tell him about my experience. This is what he replied with:

Tony,

Thanks for taking time to tell me your story. Isn't it amazing how our connection with people in need can put the rest of life in context? I'm sure that Johnny was richly blessed by your kindness--whether he was high or not. Thanks for taking time to relate to him. Thanks for going BEYOND.

Blessings,
David

Life is awesome! It's amazing how people come and go in our lives, helping us along our journey. Thank you God...for putting Johnny in my life for that brief moment.

People see God every day, they just don't recognize him. ~Pearl Bailey