From David Wilkinson's little book, The Prayer of Jabez comes this little anecdotal story...
"There's a little fable about a Mr. Jones who dies and goes to heaven. Peter is waiting at the gates to give him a tour. Amid the splendor of golden streets, beautiful mansions, and choirs of angels that Peter shows him, Mr. Jones notices an odd-looking building. He thinks it looks like an enormous warehouse--it has no windows and only one door. But when he asks to see inside, Peter hesitates. 'You really don't want to see what's in there.' he tells the new arrival. 'Why would there be any secrets in heaven?' Mr Jones wonders. What incredible surprise could be waiting for me in there? When the official tour is over he's still wondering, so he asks again to see inside the structure.
Finally Peter relents. When the apostle opens the door, Mr Jones almost knocks him over in his haste to enter. It turns out that the enormous building is filled with row after row of shelves, floor to ceiling, each stacked neatly with white boxes tied in red ribbons. "These boxes all have names on them, " Mr. Jones muses aloud. Then turning to Peter he asks, "Do I have one?" "Yes, you do." Peter tries to guide Mr. Jones back outside. "Frankly, if I were you..." Peter says, but Mr. Jones is already dashing toward the "J" aisle to find his box.
Peter follows, shaking his head. He catches up with Mr. Jones just as he is slipping the red ribbon off his box and popping the lid. Looking inside, Jones has a moment of instant recognition, and he lets out a deep sigh like the ones Peter has heard so many times before. Because there in Mr. Jones's white box are all the blessings that God wanted to give to him while he was on earth...but Mr. Jones had never asked.
"Ask," promised Jesus, "and it will be given to you" (Matthew 7:7). "You do not have because you do not ask," said James (James 4:2). Even though there is no limit to God's goodness, if you didn't ask Him for a blessing yesterday, you didn't get all that you were supposed to have.
I read this story this morning. I thought to myself, "How fortunate I was to make a special request on my way downtown yesterday. I had asked to meet someone who was desperate emotionally. The special encounter came with the second man I stopped to help. His name was Arleo Jones. He told me he will turn 44 years old this week and he is from the LA area. When I first pulled up and asked if he was hungry he immediately responded with a yes. He said yes to the water too and then I asked if he needed some socks. I noticed when I pulled up that his shoes and socks were off. It was about 3 pm and a pretty warm Sunday (about 78 degrees). When someone says yes to the socks, that opens the door up to a longer conversation because I have to get out of the car and open the back up. Arleo ended up needing a couple of T-shirts and a pair a shoes too. During this time he opened up to me about his frustration with his life. More than once he told me, "I have so much to offer, I have lots of talent and yet I'm stuck here with no hope." Eventually, because he hadn't showered in a while he told me he felt so dirty that he thought about going down to the beach and just swimming straight out until the under current pulled him under and he could just end it all right there. His frustration with life was palpable. He told me he is a father to six kids and that he was a good and patient Dad (you'd have to be with that many) and that a couple of years back he was in church and accepted Christ and even received the gift of tongues and a week or so later he was homeless and on the street! He just couldn't understand "why God had let this happen to him!" You know it doesn't take too long to realize an encounter with someone goes far beyond giving them food, water and clothing. I had prayed for this not fifteen minutes before, but for some reason it always sneaks up on you as a surprise, you're not just on deck, you're up (that's a baseball term), it's time to shine and meet the need with whatever the Holy Spirit leads you to give out. As a man of nearly 60 years of living experience I've had my share of trials and tribulations and I knew and recognized the frustration in his words. This was the real deal and this is why I was called for this ministry. All my plans for later in the day are now on hold as it's time to deal with this man for as long as it takes. You know there are no "magic words" to say, each time and each person is different and I like to first let them speak out their circumstances. Not knowing how much of a biblical background each person has can kind of hinder or limit your use of scripture to help, yet there are some general basics to tell them. Usually, people are familiar with the main patriarchs of the bible and you can tell people that these "great men" of the bible are great because of what they overcame without getting into too many specifics. With Arleo I was able to tell him about how things disintegrated around me a couple of years after my spiritual conversion (family, job, auto accident) and it took a few years to slowly get back up. Nothing happened overnight, it was a slow process. I think Arleo appreciated the fact that I wasn't some 25 year old where nothing bad had happened in their life and was trying to give him "advice". Well, we talked, we prayed and I gave him a card from the Dream Center. I only had a dollar and some change in my pocket which I gave to him. He refused it at first until I told him, "Hey, when you're ready, offer someone the buck to use their cell phone and call the number for the Dream Center. See what happens". With that he took the money. Nearly every time I meet someone in this situation, there are more than one or two factors. With Arleo, he was hungry (he ate the two burgers immediately--and I gave him another one before I left), he was thirsty (he drank the two bottles of water and I gave him another one), he was feeling dirty, frustrated, and no doubt guilt over not providing for his kids and his mistakes in the past that led to this situation. He also needed someone to listen! Someone who knew and understood the difficulties and frustrations of life. It was a privilege to be there, thank you Lord for answering my prayer to be a helper to someone in trouble.
Two other notable encounters for me. Carlos, whom I've been seeing for the last six months or so finally accepted some food Sunday. Also, when I was with my Spanish preaching friends down at McArthur Park later in the day, the battery pack gave out before I was able to speak. When they realized they couldn't fix it and had packed up to leave, I gathered them all together to pray for them. After I thanked God for giving me the opportunity to pray behind them and for being co-laborers in His harvest field they asked me to pray for someone with a special need in their group. One of the women who I thought was just with them (I didn't recognize her) turns out she was homeless and had no place to stay. I prayed for her (her name was Mary) to receive some opportunities for shelter and a new start. When I finished I suggested they take her to the Dream Center. Rosalla knew of the center, unfortunately, I didn't have a card on me (they were in the car), but I told them it was straight up Alvarado on Bellvue. I hope to find out how things went next week. --Until next time. John
PS...Yes, the green is in honor of St. Patricks Day....Hey, I'm of Irish descent!
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