Story Time: Chris and Kenny

A few evenings ago, I was studying at the library for my finals with a group of friends. They asked if I could watch their stuff as they went to eat, and I agreed. I wanted to go eat too, but someone had to stay and watch our table. Long story short, I waited longer than I anticipated and became a bit grumpy. When they got back, I left and headed towards McDonald's on my way home (don't judge me).

Chris
As I open the door, a young homeless man stares straight at me and asks for money to get food. Personally, I don't like giving away money. I want to make sure that the money is being used for the right intentions. So I offered to buy him whatever he wanted. And let me tell you, he ordered a lot of food... 5 McDoubles, 5 McChickens, and some BLT sandwich.

While we were waiting for the food to come out, he kept on rambling about his past. The guy's name is Chris. He was socially awkward, but you never know what living on the streets can do to you after a couple years. Chris told me how he had a rough past going to jail for burglary, getting on probation, and ruining his future.

And he wouldn't stop bowing down to me. Almost every other sentence was followed with a bow. And I'm not talking about the bowing your head type bow. He got on his knees and bowed his forehead to the ground. It was his way of expressing his thanks. It made me think, "Who am I to be bowed down to? I feel like God is going to smite me. Just kidding. But seriously, I don't deserve this treatment."

Anyway, we got the food. I asked to pray for him. I prayed for the food. I prayed for God to enter his life in some way. It could be from my encounter with him, or someone else's later in the future. It was a simple prayer, and we parted our ways.

Kenny
But there was another homeless man that saw the entire encounter. He came up and told me how he was amazed to see me do something like that for a guy like him. I simply explained that I felt a conviction to share the love that I've been shown through Christ. I explained to him my faith in Christ. And he seemed to listen with positivity.

We had a bit of small talk, and I learned about the man (Kenny). He was a bit different from many other homeless people that I've met. Kenny was very respectful. He, like many others, made some bad decisions and lost a lot of money. But he didn't boast about it. He showed expressed shame as he talked about his past. He stopped his story abruptly, saying that I wouldn't want to hear the rest of the "boring" story.

Who am I to judge him? I explained that I'm not much of a better person than he. It was sad to see how the world pushed him to be ashamed of himself and beat himself up. It seemed as if he was told to accept the fact that he's a failure and must live with the consequences. I wanted to explain the grace that we all have in Christ, but we ended our conversation. He hoped that we would meet again. I pray and hope that I'll be able to see him again.

Aftermath
After all this occurred, I wasn't so grumpy anymore. There was a reason for me to stay at the table and wait for everyone to come back. None of this story would have occurred without that incidence.

I watched another Judah Smith sermon when I got back home from this event. The sermon was exactly about what just happened in my life. To summarize, sometimes we have to meet strangers and non-believers at their table. Jesus sat at the table of sinners. Why are we so afraid of having our "image" ruined by hanging out with "those people". So what if people make assumptions? That's exactly what the Pharisees did to Jesus. They made assumptions and judged him for sitting with "those sinners". Sometimes, we can't always tell others to join our table. We have to meet them at their place, just like Jesus came down to meet us at our level.