The Work Gloves
It was an unusually cold day for the month of May. Spring had arrived
and everything was alive with color. But a cold front from the North had
brought winter's chill back to Indiana. I sat, with two friends, in the picture
window of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of the town-square.
The food and the company were both especially good that day.
As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street.
There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying all his
worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read,
"I will work for food." My heart sank. I brought him to the attention of
my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating to
focus on him.
Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and disbelief. We continued with our
meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We finished our meal and went our
separate ways.
I had errands to do and quickly set out to accomplish them. I glanced
toward the town square, looking somewhat halfheartedly for the strange
visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call some
response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him. I made some
purchases at a store and got back in my car. Deep within me, the
Spirit of God kept speaking to me: "Don't go back to the office until
you've at least driven once more around the square." And so, with
some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's
third corner, I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the
storefront church, going through his sack. I stopped and looked,
feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on.
The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from
God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the
town's newest visitor.
"Looking for the pastor?" I asked.
"Not really," he replied, "just resting."
"Have you eaten today?"
"Oh, I ate something early this morning."
"Would you like to have lunch with me?"
"Do you have some work I could do for you?"
"No work," I replied. "I commute here to work from the city, but I
would like to take you to lunch."
"Sure," he replied with a smile.
As he began to gather his things. I asked some surface questions.
"Where you headed?"
"St. Louis."
"Where you from?"
"Oh, all over; mostly Florida."
"How long you been walking?"
"Fourteen years," came the reply.
I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the
same restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond
his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence
and articulation that was startling. He removed his jacket to reveal a bright
red T-shirt that said, "Jesus is The Never Ending Story."
Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in
life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences. Fourteen
years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had stopped on the
beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a
large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought. He was hired, but the
tent would not house a concert but revival services, and in those services
he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God. "Nothing's been the
same since," he said, "I felt the Lord telling me to keep walking, and so I
did, some 14 years now."
"Ever think of stopping?" I asked.
"Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me. But God has
given me this calling. I give out Bibles. That's what's in my sack. I
work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads."
I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission
and lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and
then I asked: "What's it like?"
"What?"
"To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show
your sign?"
"Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments.
Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that
certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize
that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other
folks like me."
My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered his
things. Just outside the door, he paused. He turned to me and said,
"Come Ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for
you. For when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you
gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in."
I felt as if we were on holy ground. "Could you use another Bible?" I
asked. He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well
and was not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite. "I've read through
it 14 times," he said.
"I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and
see."
I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he
seemed very grateful. "Where you headed from here?"
"Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park
coupon."
"Are you hoping to hire on there for a while?"
"No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star
right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next." He smiled,
and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove
him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and
as we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.
"Would you sign my autograph book?" he asked. "I like to keep messages
from folks I meet."
I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had
touched my life. I encouraged him to stay strong, and I left him
with a verse of scripture from Jeremiah, "I know the plans I
have for you," declared the Lord, "plans to prosper you and
not to harm you. Plans to give you a future and a hope."
"Thanks, man" he said. "I know we just met and we're really just
strangers, but I love you."
"I know," I said, "I love you, too." "The Lord is good."
"Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?" I asked.
"A long time," he replied.
And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend
and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed.
He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, "See
you in the New Jerusalem."
"I'll be there!" was my reply.
He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling
from his bed roll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said,
"When you see something that makes you think of me, will you
pray for me?"
"You bet," I shouted back, "God bless."
"God bless." And that was the last I saw of him.
Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold
front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to
my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw
them... a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the
length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and
wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them.
I remembered his words: "If you see something that makes you
think of me, will you pray for me?"
Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to
see the world and its people in a new way, and they help me
remember those two hours with my unique friend and to
pray for his ministry.
"See you in the New Jerusalem," he said.
Yes, Daniel, I know I will...
http://www.kimstamps.com/workgloves.html
Nice story huh?Anyways, today was my study day, typed finish my history notes, sent it to andrew, he was complaining all about it>.<.. because i added air pork and hoover ho inside.. i was tired okay? needed to keep myself awake...then he say got to be serious blah blah blah...
Boring day lar.. type finish in the morning, then later in the afternoon go to setudy physics.. going to fail it sia.. bloody chen linguang.. going to kill us all lar...except for kevin ho and the other nerds...maybe...
Dl-ed some more replays and watched them at night.. played a game myself.. got DR as only hero.. damn over powered hero sia.. anti caster, tank and charm is WAY OVERPOWERED i mean wtf? 150mana 120secs cool down that's like 120 secs free tauren/knight/MG/ Frostworm ever 120 secs leh.. wtf lor? silence..... vs mass casters= gg... black arrow+10 something dmg and a skele, that's way better than a searing arrow at 6 mana per cast... gay.