Follow

Over the weekend, I had a conversation with a man from our city whose fallen on really hard times. His story included a recent car accident that left him in need of surgery and unable to work since. He and his family have been accepting anything they can from churches, etc. to keep food on the table mostly consisting of “bread and tea, bread and tea, that’s all!” Through it all he said, “But God helps me.”

Knowing his religious background as one where God is seen as an arbitrarily benevolent deadbeat, I knew he felt out of reach like this was just his life and there was not ever going to be more. It’s conversations like these where I realize just how shallow much of my thoughts are through the day. Truly, there is so much meaning in the words “bread” and “tea” that I would never have unearthed on my own.

I prayed as we spoke and asked God to give me words of real hope for him. We talked about Jesus and how many religions (including this man’s) respect Him as a man of God. My insight was to look at the narratives in other faiths that point to Jesus. I said, “They are telling a piece of the story, a small piece. The Bible as we call it tells the rest of it. The story itself though is all in Jesus.”

This seemed to connect in some way. After a moment of silence and a sip of tea/coffee I told him I had a family, too. I pointed out my wife and daughter and said their names and the name of my son. For the first time, he smiled. He looked down and then back up and said, “This is a good family.” It was as though seeing my family gave him some kind of hope. For this, I thank God and I hope for Jesus to make his hope complete.