At the tree

On Friday nights a few of us from Bayside go out to downtown B-town to pass out hot dogs and coffee to the homeless. We have our regulars and there are always new faces as well. We each have our favorites. The people we can sit with for hours and just chat about...whatever. Its been an awesome experience to get to know these people, to share a small portion of life with them, to learn from them (and oh the things we have learned!). But there's a guy who we have all grown attached to. Michael, aka River Mike. This guy is awesome, so sweet and he will definitely chat your ear off about...whatever. Well he is getting on in years and his health is not real good. He was in an acident years ago that caused significant damage to his legs and he still does get around very well. Of course it doesn't help that he is older and doesn't like going to the doctor and sleeps outside on the ground either. Well one friday night recently River Mike wasn't at the court house like he usually is. We asked around about him. We were concerned about him. We know he doesn't get much food on the weekends because it is too far for him to walk to the shelters to get dinner. We usually give him extra food to last him a few days, but he wasn't there. The week before this he was really sick, so when we didn't see him a few of us paniced for a moment. But we asked around and were told "oh yea, Mike's at the tree". So we were led to a Palmetto Palm in the middle of a vacant lot a few blocks away and low and behold there's River Mike with his friends Rob and Shorty, all chillin' under the Palmetto Palm. Mike was still not feeling well, not getting around well and was "bed" bound and Rob and Shorty were keeping him company.
Well Mike was excited to see us as he usually is when we come around. He invited us into his home and we stayed and chatted for a long while. I didn't have much to say that night. I was just trying to put my mind around my surroundings and what I was really seeing. I mean, I've known a lot of these guys for over a year now, I know they're homeless, I've seen them, I've smelled them, I've heard their stories, but I still really didn't get it until I saw were one of them was staying. Seeing him laying on the ground on his cardboard mat lined with a plastic tarp and his friends sitting on their cardboard mats. Hearing them say that Mike found a "good spot". Smelling the surrounding (Remember he is not getting aroung very well these days.) I was just in shock. That doesn't happen to me very often, but I was definitely in shock. So I just knelt down and sat quietly and listen as River Mike and Ed talked.
The conversation started normally, asking Mike how he was doing, making sure he got the food we had saved for him, asking if he needed any medicine or anything else. But then the conversation took a turn very quickly as Mike started to professing his blessings and how God was providing for him and how much he loved God and can not wait to see Him! Now I was in an even greater state of shock. Was I really in this place seeing what I was seeing and sitting there listening to Mike and Ed discussing God and Revelation and the coming of Jesus and what it is going to be like after this life? I was absolutely blown away. I mean I have been in enough Applied small group meetings and many, many other various moments when Ed has absolutely blown me away with God's truth in a moment just when I needed to hear it (and I'm sure he has no idea that was happening at the time) to realize that God works through him in that way. But to hear these words coming from Michael....! I can't even explain it. It was a profound moment for me. He definitely became an inspirational person for me that night. Just to see the faith and longing to be with our Heavenly Father that this man has...I was in awe. I wanted to break down and cry right there, but I was able to hold it in till I got home. With all his adversity and lacks for the essentials, he is so thankful for all he does have, for our friendship, and for the love of Jesus Christ. It really puts a lot of things in my life in perspective. Really, what do I have that is worth complaining about in light of what this person has gone through? His focus is not on the now, it is on the what is to come. That is where I want to spend my time focusing on too.
As I am preparing to leave for Thailand I wonder if River Mike will be here when I get back in two months. I'm not sure, but everytime I pass that old Palmetto Palm I will think of Mike "at the tree".