A Slower Pace

This post is a follow up to my impromptu lunch with Jesse from a week and a half ago. If you haven’t done so already, read it first.

As Jesse got into the back seat and we headed towards our nearby lunch destination, I became aware of the unpleasant smell of alcohol. Knowing that my friend and I had just come from work and neither one of us had been drinking, my acute deduction powers kicked in pointing to Jesse. In a respectable way as lovingly as I could, I asked him if he had been drinking already today (seeing as it was only 11:30am). Jesse confessed to having a beer and I made it clear to him that I had provided him funds for a bus ticket to get home and that I wanted to see him use that money for just such an effort. Expectedly, he stated that he, indeed, would be purchasing a bus ticket after having lunch with us. It was a disappointing, but very human, piece of information.

The three of us grabbed a table and began the process of making the situation as normal as can be. I gave Jesse a summary of the day’s events on how my friend and I ended up at lunch and what our relationship was. My friend and I have many similarities in our lives and it was kind of neat to summarize a few of those in front of a stranger. It was my goal to get Jesse to feel comfortable and be a part of the conversation and lunch events, not just be a third wheel or spectator. I have found that in situations like these it is very important to, not only tend to someone’s physical needs, but to make them feel wanted, loved and important. It is these human aspects that society often misses when trying to take care of these situations. And they are almost always left out in government “solutions” and programs because it is subjective and not quantifiable. But that doesn’t mean it is not important. Quite often, it is more important than the problem itself whether it be homelessness, unemployment, addiction or abuse.

My friend and I asked Jesse some basic informational questions and answered similarly — where we live, where we’re from, people in our lives, etc. We found out Jesse lives down in Franklin county outside of Bowling Green. He does carpentry construction and has not had a good go of it since he fell off a roof a while back. Unfortunately, he is also recently divorced and out of work. He was up in Crestwood visiting his 17 year old daughter and was trying to make his way back home. He has lived in Kentucky all his life and seems like a pretty nice guy when he isn’t drinking the 6-10 beers a day he said he had a problem with. I found it interesting that he clarified that he doesn’t get “drop dead drunk” but rather just drinks throughout the day. He admitted he had a problem with alcohol and said he had been to a few AA meetings but didn’t “get it”. He wondered how a bunch of people sitting around saying their name and admitting they were alcoholics actually helped anyone. I told him that I knew many people have been helped by AA and that he might need to give it another shot.

The conversation progressed as we ordered and received our food. I found it interesting that Jesse didn’t order extravagantly or even get a drink. He ordered off the lunch specials menu and asked for water. As we dug into our grub, the discussion turned spiritual. My friend and I had an opportunity to witness to Jesse and share the hope we have in Christ. (“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” — 1 Peter 3:15) Jesse said he believed in Christ and occasionally attends church at home. I encouraged him to fully pursue his relationship with Christ and to seek help in defeating his alcohol demon. I told him we all have our demons and that none of us can do it alone. It is only in the freedom and redemption in Christ’s death were we can truly live free from sin’s declining spiral.

After finishing his meal, Jesse kindly thanked both of us and said goodbye. He left out a side door and headed down the street towards the local bus line that would take him downtown to the Greyhound station. We watched him walk out of sight as we finished up our meals and drinks. I was hopefully optimistic that he would use the funds to get back home. And hopefully, just hopefully, it will be a small step towards normalcy and possibly recovery some day. He has been in my prayers often since that day and will continue to be.

And a lesson I learned a while ago continues to ring true. Again, I have learned that I don’t need to have all the answers to be a part of the solution.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I spotted this sign Friday at the church where I attended the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast (of which I still need to blog about).

“To all moms:
Our thanks and prayers!”

Additionally, I have an applicable Bible verse:

“Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
They will be a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.” – Proverbs 1:8-9

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

H/T to Theo.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Funny…..I was in prayer a lot today — travel, needs identified, requests, etc. And I had forgotten it was the National Day of Prayer until I saw a news headline while walking through the airport in Detroit. While I am glad our government recognizes the power of prayer, I sure don’t need to government to approve or disapprove my communicating with the one who created me.

On my flights home I observed a few interesting, random items.

– As the pilot came on the intercom in the low, slow voice (I think there is a special aviation “intercom voice” class that is a requirement) he apologized for the 1/2 hour delay but hoped to make it up. He told us that we were carrying a human blood shipment and due to that the flight was considered an ambulance and would get special priority clearance on the ground for takeoff and in the air to Louisville. I thought that was kind of cool.

But then it hit me…..aren’t they ALWAYS carrying human blood? Hmmmmm……

– A guy that was the spitting image of Col. Sanders (the happy KFC guy) boarded the plane. I could not determine which was more interesting: the fact that he looked like Col. Sanders’ twin brother or the fact that he was wearing an old fashioned pale pink suit. He looked like an Easter peep version of Col. Sanders. Pretty funny.

He sure was pimpin’ though!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I worked a half day today and then made my way to the airport for a quick business trip to South Dakota. I’ll be here for around 48 hours and then make my way back to the family.

As I parked this afternoon in the gorgeous sunshine, I walked from the long term parking to the terminal. Before I entered the building I noticed a pretty blond young lady all dressed up. She had a huge smile on her face and I could see why. She was arm in arm with her camoflauged uniformed lover who obviously had just returned from serving our country. Others from the family escorted the happy couple and it brought a smile to my face to see such a joyous sight. So often on the news we see violence or hear of attacks against our soldiers. It is a precious moment to see them return home after a hard mission into their loved ones arms, hugs and smiles. The scene touched me and started my journey off right.

Fast forward to my arrival in Sioux Falls, SD. I meandered my way through the small airport towards ground transportation and baggage claim. When I exited security, a gaggle of people with signs, flags and red, white and blue shirts eagerly awaited a loved one. He happened to be on my flight and behind me. They all went crazy when he came into their sight. I stood to the side and just took in the scene. Kids hugged the man, uncles and aunts shaking hands, a wife/girlfriend kissing, and proud parents embracing. It was truly another scene to be remembered and brings a smile to my face as I write this.

Please take a moment to remember our military folks who are selflessly serving our country right now. Pray that they all may return to such beautiful celebrations of love and excitement.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

“The best thing to spend on your children is time”

That church sign is kind of ironic in that I am leaving this afternoon for a business trip. Luckily it is a quick one and I’ll be back Thursday evening. And with it raining all this last weekend, we spent quite a bit of time with the kids going to church, playing games, reading or going to my oldest daughter’s play.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Today I was extraordinarily blessed with a spectacular day. However, I wavered back and forth about whether to blog about my day. The reason being is that, while I enjoy identifying opportunities to serve Christ with my whole heart, I am hesistant about writing or talking about them.

On one side of the coin, I want to blog about them to share with others ideas on how they can identify opportunities and serve Christ. It also might be an opportunity to inspire others. At the least, it probably makes for a good story.

On the other side of the coin, I do not want to bring attention to myself. When I act on these tugs at my heart by the Holy Spirit, I am merely being obedient and doing what God calls me to do. It is nothing special and I continue to be amazed at how God can use a broken vessel like me to fulfill His plan. I write about this solely for #1) the glory of Christ and #2) to hopefully inspire others to get out there and make a difference. Additionally, scripture gives us some good guidance on this as well. In Matthew 6:1-4 (New International Version)

1″Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2″So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Just to show the entire picture, I have also blogged about my failure to serve Christ in the past, as highlighted in these posts — I failed….. , Turtles and failure….., and I’m ashamed….. .

So with that all being said, here is a summary of my day as I was able to serve Christ. I blog about this to bring glory to Christ and inspire others to do the same.

As most of you regular readers know, I spot all sorts of cool things in the morning and on my drives to work. From gorgeous sunrises, to patriotic signs, to wildlife, to a combination of almost everything. I have learned that the morning and my commute to work is when I am freshest and when I am most open to God speaking to me.

So this morning it was no different as I cruised to work in the drizzling rain. I was about 1 or 2 miles away when I noticed a TARC bus stopped in the middle of nowhere in the industrial park dropping off a nicely dressed lady in heels. Now, this was peculiar because it was a part of the industrial area where there is no intersection, no bus stop, no strip mall, no stores……nothing but warehouses and industrial buildings. She didn’t have an umbrella and was holding a Walmart bag and newspaper above her head. I sped by the other direction at 55mph and didn’t think twice when I heard my heart say that I had to make a U-turn to go back and offer her a ride to where she was going. It took me a 1/4 mile to find a break in the median (again, this was an industrial area with not much around). I spun around and pointed the car back to where I saw the bus drop her off. She had made her way not far down a side street. I pulled up, rolled the window down and asked if I could give her a dry ride to where she was going.

It turned out she was just going to the next large warehouse building where she works but she was thankful for the sheltered escort to the front doors. I didn’t even get a chance to ask her name but said goodbye and “have a nice day”.

As I turned around in the parking lot, I turned back up the radio to my normal dial — 88.5 WJIE. At that time one of my favorite bands — Tenth Avenue North — was on playing their latest hit single from their new album – Healing Begins (which I am listening to as I blog write this). Uncharacteristically of me, I lifted up my hand in praise as an obedient servant. It was just coming off a small task of service and now was acknowledging my Savior. I was overcome all the way back to my work.

So, as you can imagine, my day was off to an awesome start. Unfortunately, one of my really good friends who I was having lunch with had to cancel. This is one of my “anchor” people — someone who is a brother in Christ and where we can build each other up. (Editorial: make sure you have “anchor” people in your life that can build you up and who you can build up. It is important to have the encouragement, accountability, wisdom and perspective of other close believers.)

Being the resourceful person I am, I inquired with another anchor friend of mine who agreed to head out to lunch with me. We decided on a local BBQ place and headed a bit before noon so we could beat the lunch crowd.

We enjoyed nice conversation on the way there and I exited the freeway eagerly anticipating a nice meal with a friend and the large sweet tea I have come to love. As we went under the freeway I noticed someone standing at the bottom of the offramp from the other direction. That area is quite a bit away from the city and not known for panhandlers. He looked down on his luck but wasn’t filthy or ragged. He was holding a cardboard sign that I couldn’t see from our angle.

I looked over to my friend and informed him that I was going to take a detour. Now this is a bit of a sidebar here — I am very lucky to have a friend in Christ in this anchor person. He and I have had all sorts of interesting conversation in our trials and tribulations and have been able to share and build our faith together throughout our growing relationship. And while making this kind of detour is not in my everyday activities, especially with someone else along for the ride, it was something I felt comfortable enough within our relationship to be able to do. I thank him for being someone I can share that with.

We crossed through the intersection and pulled to the side shoulder. My friend hung out in the car while I jogged back to inquire as to what the offramp fellow needed. He couldn’t hear me across the traffic and was initially hesitant to leave his vantage point. He finally “Froggered” his way through the offramp traffic over to my side. He was an older guy with graying shoulder length hair. I asked him if he wanted to join us for lunch. He said he was stranded here and was trying to get back to Bowling Green (just a short 2 hour jaunt south down I-65). He said he didn’t want lunch but needed a bus ticket to go home.

Now, normally I don’t give cash to panhandlers, homeless or cardboard sign folks. It is too easy for them to use it for nefarious purposes (alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, and other things they don’t need — which is quite often why they are in the situation to begin with). But for some reason, my heart spoke to me and I gave him the needed money for the bus ticket. At that time, I was able to convince him to join us for lunch. That test he passed — I was thinking that if his “real” need for a bus ticket was met, he would then spend time with us over a meal. If he just wanted money, he’d take it and get back to his prime spot on the offramp.

I introduced him to my friend who was patiently waiting in the car and he said his name was Jesse. We headed down to our lunch destination and worked through the initial uncomfortable moments such situations come with.

Stay tuned…..part 2 and the lunch conversation will come tomorrow. It is late and I need to get my beauty sleep. (Ha!)

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I continue to be impressed by the Chick-Fil-A Desire to Inspire program I attended with some of the guys this last Thursday. It was an enjoyable time with friends at a nice large local church with some very good words spoken by some charitable folks.

Leigh Anne Tuohy told one of my favorite stories during her talk. I first heard it during the Hurricane Katrina clean up mission trip to Mississippi in 2006. While the version was a bit different, the point is just as impactful.

After one of the gulf shore storms, a young boy and his grandfather were down walking along the beach looking for shells. As they walked along, they noticed starfish upon starfish that had washed up on the shore. Without being in the water they would all soon die.

The little boy put down his shells and started picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean. He would pick one up, look at it, and then throw it as far as he could into the ocean. One by one he did this, repeatedly.

His grandfather looked at him bewildered. He finally said something to his grandson.

“Why are you throwing those starfish into the ocean? Can’t you see that there are THOUSANDS of starfish stranded on the beach. You can’t save them all. Save your energy and look for shells. You can’t make a difference.”

“The little boy looked at his grandfather, picked up a starfish, threw it into the water, and said “I just made a difference to THAT one”.

Leigh Anne went on to encourage everyone to get involved in their local communities to find starfish that are falling between society’s crack and “throw them back into the water”.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a very nice dinner event hosted at a local large church (Northside Christian) in New Albany, Indiana. It was a continuing of a Desire to Inspire series put on by a local Chick-Fil-A franchise who is taking to heart the Chick-Fil-A mission “To glorify God by being a faithful steward to all that has been entrusted to us, and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.

How cool is that for a company to have that kind of a mission…..and for a franchisee to take it to heart for action?

Their most recent dinner program was last year and included a motivational speech by Tony Dungee. Too bad I didn’t know about the series or I would have taken my wife to that one.

Last night’s program had Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy who you probably know better as the real life couple from the movie The Blind Side and who I highlighted back in this post. They were very good public speakers and played off each other very well. One funny part was the fact that Chick-Fil-A was hosting the event. There was a Chick-Fil-A basket with all sorts of prizes in it that was on the front of the stage wrapped up to be used as a door prize. Sean Tuohy, who is a Taco Bell franchise owner, grabbed the basket, hid it behind an object on the stage while saying “This thing makes me kinda nervous”.

The rest of the night was littered with funny comments by both Sean and Leigh Anne. You can feel the passion they have towards community outreach and helping others. Leah Anne repeated multiple times that what youth need is “a little love, a little hope, and a little opportunity”. She also encouraged folks to get out there and do something. They didn’t necessarily have to go out and adopt a 6 foot 6 inch, 350 pound, black kid. They can find needs right in their community and right in front of them. And it doesn’t necessarily need to mean adoption. And it doesn’t necessarily need to mean writing a check…..although we need those too. The bottom line is that we need to get out in the streets, in the community, and in the world to have a positive impact.

Another quote from Leigh Anne resonated with several of us who attended — “You want my advice on how to make a difference in someone’s life? Just do something. And do it well.”

It was also an interesting evening because it was a year ago on a Thursday night that the Tuohy family was with Michael Oher while he was awaiting news of his placement in the NFL draft. And as we all know he was a #1 draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens.

The night was a great time for me to spend with friends listening to some great role models. Hopefully, the program will spur lots of discussion, ideas and action, not only from me and my little group, but from all of those who attended.

Additionally, coming up is another Chick-Fil-A sponsored event — Leadercast – Be The One — on May 7. Take a look at the link — I think it is something that would be worth your time.

I have added links above but I think it is valuable to call them out individually below.

http://desiretoinpsire.blogspot.com/

http://www.chick-fil-aleadercast.com/

earlier Blind Side post

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

“Spring is for planting seeds.
What are you planting?”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net