I want to share a story today about the best man I know. Again, I am walking away a bit from the testimonial format that I have been sharing for over three years now, but I have to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. So here I go!
I met the best man I know the first time, I think, back when I was a teenager. At that time, I was riding a bus. Something I often did in my high school years because my family had moved from Chicago to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but I had stayed in the seminary school I was attending and traveled by Greyhound every other month on my weekend off.
He sat next to me at the back of the bus. That really bugged me because the back of the bus was where the ‘kids’ hung out. Normally we would play OUR music on a transistor radio or even a portable record player. It was like a club. Smoking cigarettes (yes, back in those days smoking was legal on public transportation) and passing a bottle or a joint around (no those weren’t legal even back in the good old days) It was OUR space and this person had the audacity to invade it and on top of it all sit next to me!
I can’t tell you how ticked I was! But what was a boy to do? My decision was to make his life as miserable as possible. I smoked one cigarette after another and blew the smoke in his direction. I turned around in my seat and asked the hippie girl and her boyfriend to crank up the music. I knew the bus driver and on the late-night run there were few passengers so he would not care. But this old dude was going to get the works. The funny thing is no matter what I did he sat there serenely, reading. And just every now and again he would chuckle, until finally he spoke:
“Son,” he said, “I have been travelin’ on these here buses since before the war and you should have seen the racket them soldiers made! I have learned to read this here book no matter what goes on around me and when I get a chance, I share a bit.” He was quiet for a minute then said, “You is young, smokin’ them death weeds and worse. I did all too starting younger than you! Then I met a man who showed me another way. From that time, I have traveled offerin’ a way to others. Offering to share Jesus, the way the truth and the life….”
I cut him off! I lit up another cigarette and tried to hear nothing else, but his words still bothered me and if I was truthful, I wanted to know more.
We rode together until he got off north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. I felt relieved until I noticed he left his book behind. A Bible. He offered me an escape from the path I was about to travel but I left it sitting on that bus!
I met the best man I know again when I was running a crew and he was killed on my watch. A choker broke and the bundle of rebar landed on him. Filled with guilt I attended his funeral. There seated in the front were his young wife and children. I had drank, at least, a half fifth of booze before I could work the nerve to even attend and as soon as the service was over I headed out as fast as possible and was just about to my truck when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was his wife. I tried to mumble my condolences, but she stopped me with a few soft words,
“John, my husband said you were a good man who just had lost his way. He so wanted to give you this but never got around to it.”
At that she handed me a worn red covered Bible. Without another word left to continue in her grieve. I tossed the Bible under my seat, remembering how many times that man had offered me a different path, but I could not take it!
Surprisingly, the best man I ever knew showed up again in a dark bar outside of Denver, Colorado. Sitting next to me and seeing I was alone and lost, he once again offered me a picture of a different life. He showed up again as a poor woman waiting for a bus in the pouring rain, smiling and praising God even though she seemed to have nothing to praise him for. There he was again in the form of a smiling grandmother who whispered in my ear that she prayed for me every night. And so many more I cannot even mention them all until one day, finally, and after all his attempts, I recognized who he had been all along. You see, the best man I ever knew is Jesus Christ, walking and talking, praying, and pleading through all these people just to save this lost man whom he knew was in desperate need of a Savior. So many lost years, so many offers of his saving power! It was him in the form of every loving person who showed me Jesus. And it is me in this parable, the lost sheep he sought so relentlessly!
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15: 1-7)
If you doubt that Jesus is seeking to save you today, look to how many times he has opened the door to you. If you can honestly say he never has, and you are reading this then the best man I and you will ever know is offering you a chance to meet him today. Don’t wait look to the word of God and see the new life he is offering you. It is when Jesus is living in you and living in that we become the best man or woman we can be. Like my bus riding friend, I offer you his love!
Blessings
John
8/10/20
