Crazy, right?

A Crazy Night On The Streets

Dan and Shelly are from Philadelphia. They are both disabled and just arrived in Norfolk a week ago. Although they had enough money to stay in a hotel until October 3^rd when their next check comes in, it was stolen from their hotel room.

So they find themselves living on the streets until the 3^rd of October. Crazy isn’t it?

Dan was hit by a train, pronounced dead and woke up in the morgue with a toe tag on a number of years ago. It shocked the priest that was there reading last rites so badly that he dropped his bible and ran to get help. Dan has no bone running from his wrist to his elbow – it’s a piece of metal now – he showed me. His jaw was broken and his tongue was bitten off. He showed me his tongue so I could see where it was sewn back on – Crazy right?

He had to learn how to walk again. [Think about that for a moment]

He had to learn how to talk again. [Think about that for a moment too]

Now they found themselves living on the streets of Norfolk. They had no blanket, just the clothes on their backs. We bought them a blanket.

The cool thing about Dan was that he was totally optimistic. Crazy isn’t it?

I know people with a roof over their heads, with good jobs, and food in the refrigerator who can’t see God’s mercy. Crazy huh?

Here’s Dan, walking with a cane, thin as a rail and smiling and telling me about people in his family who are doing well, and you can see the pride shining all around him. Crazy thing isn’t it?

Shelly told me that if it weren’t for folks like us, helping when they can, that they just wouldn’t make it. She was so soft spoken, so kind, so appreciative - we prayed.

I also spoke to Demetrius, a young man who has been quiet for the many weeks that I have known him. Tonight Patrick and Demetrius were debating about who exactly Melchizedek is… you know, the king that Abram paid tribute to. He was an angel suggested Patrick. Demetrius argued that he was God. They both had good reason. They both know the Word. It was a good conversation…. One I would have expected to have in church and not on the streets… although conversations about the Word can be hard to find in some churches where the Word stays pretty tight to the pulpit. Crazy, wouldn’t you agree?

It was a crazy night out on the streets and I was reminded of the many years that I faithfully sat in church each and every Sunday morning thinking that I was attending to God’s work. In fact, despite my work within the walls of the church, I was a flourishing, but fruitless tree. Crazy, right?