So I was walking to get some ice cream when I ran into Richard, well it was Richard until he trusted me with his real name, that being Dick. He was a rough 60 year old man from Henesey, Oklahoma. He was wearing a dirty black leather coat. He asked me for some change and so I told him that we could go and get some food, if he had time. While we were walking to McDonald’s, I made a few attempts to talk to him. I prodded about his childhoods, some about his past and so on. He really did not want to talk.
As we stood in front of the register, he pointed down to the menu and told me that he would like a Big Mac. I asked if he wanted some fries or a drink, he said no. He looked up at me and asked if I was going to order anything. I told him “no”. His response was rather interesting as he looked at me, then down once more, as if I had declined a dinner invitation. Then I turned around and order and double cheeseburger. We sat down at the booth and enjoyed our food. I once more tried to start some kind of conversation and he was reluctant to remain silent or answering rather quickly to anything that I said. I made an effort to get him a job at McDonald’s, I even had the manager there talking with us about what was needed in order for him to get a job. My efforts proved useless as he had virtually nothing to put down for education, past jobs, home address, or even a phone number. I looked at him after a short while and asked if he even wanted to continue trying, he looked at me and said “no, let’s go.” So we did, we headed over to the gas station next door and I bout him some cigarettes. We sat outside on the curb and each rolled a cigarette, after a while I looked up at him and said “isn’t life strange?” he looked at me and smiled and said, “Yes, yes it is.” As we sat there I opened up my journal and ripped out a page that quoted a few lines from Brennan Manning and then I wrote down my phone number. After a while we headed back to our original location, we sat down on the bench and exchanged a few words. I then told him that I needed to go, but asked if we could pray first. I thanked God for him and then asked for strength on his behalf. After I prayed he looked at me with some of the most honest eyes I had ever seen and said “thank you” as I said your welcome, I could not help but feel rather strange for accepting a thank you after a prayer.
There are times when words just don’t cut it. No gospel pitched, no pointing fingers, just passing time with people. I am beginning to thing that this is what people need more and more.