16212?

16212 days. Have any idea what happens in 16212 days? A lot. A couple of weeks ago, a young fellow by the name of Bryan came to me with the following. Said “Dave, I know your birthday is September 1st – what year were you born?” I told him 1963. He then comes up with this. “Dave, you were born 16212 days ago. It was a Sunday.” Now I obviously have no way of verifying this on a downtown street corner, so I write it down. I think to myself, “self, this guy is nuts”. Well, I get home and check it out. Sure enough. 16212 days ago was indeed a Sunday and it was the day of my birth. How in the world did Bryan know that? And how is a guy that is has this phenomenal way with numbers living inches above the poverty line?

Bryan’s just been coming around for a few months. He’s a different kind of fellow. First of all, he has a speech impediment. Stutters. Pretty badly. Difficult phone conversationalist. I know. We’ve tried. So he’s been calling. A lot. And texting. And with Bryan, that is the preferred method for obvious reasons, just maybe not quite so much. So he’s calling asking for things. Help. Just got an apartment. Needs everything. Yesterday, I brought some furniture to his apartment. Very modest place. Upstairs in an old house in midtown Omaha. Little over 500 square feet. I helped him get the furniture up to his place and he was grateful. I left his place wondering what he’d need next? He was trying to get a sofa bed from a fellow he knows. The guy calls me one day last week. Sort of gives me the lowdown on Bryan. I always wonder how these guys show up on our corner? What leads them there? In Bryan’s case, he was in a motorcycle accident when he was 14. Severe head trauma. And now? Living just above the poverty level and just a step ahead of homelessness. Well, apparently Bryan might have other issues as well. Don’t we all? I noticed a couple of empty liquor bottles in his apartment. Now, I’ve never seen him intoxicated. Some of the guys that come downtown on Sundays, well they are almost always in various states of intoxication. Not this guy. Just an observation while I was unloading the furniture up that narrow flight of stairs. Today, as the day wore on, there seemed to be a bit of tension among a few of the folks on our corner. Someone at one point told me that a few guys were getting ready to jump a guy. I told him he had to do better than that. Who and who? That guy over there he said. Well, there were about 100 guys over there. C’mon Lester, who are you talking about? We walked over to where he was pointing and eventually he pointed out the fellow that was maybe in a little trouble. It was Bryan. According to a few of the guys, he’s a known offender. Made the list. And he’s maybe just a little different. So I’m asking one of the guys if he knows this to be a fact. And if so, why isn’t he on the list? Because I try to know who’s on the list. It’s a fact that we have lots of different issues on that corner. The usual suspects. Alcoholism, drug use, felons, etc. And the big elephant in the room. Sex offenders. We know. We try to stay aware and keep on our toes in regards to this. Maybe he wasn’t on the list because his offense occurred before he was a certain age? Maybe he’s not on the list at all? I don’t know. But does that mean we treat him differently? I don’t think so. Just have to be a little more aware and let him know of the boundaries that need to exist, I guess. New territory for us…

So today, it snowed on us. Not a lot, and it wasn’t all that cold. If that makes sense. It was a wet snow. Melting pretty fast. Making a mess of things. We have a canopy that we can put up on these kinds of days and we rarely use one. We did today. Kept the people serving and the food clean and dry. Great chicken tortilla soup today and our friends raved about it…

Harry was back today. Been a few weeks since we saw him. Been in jail for a few weeks for trespassing. This is a guy who fought in Viet Nam. A Veteran. He was still there when everyone left today. We talked for a bit. As I squatted down to chat with Harry, I kind of looked into his eyes. It was a deep darkness and sadness that was there. We talked about not giving up. He said he wouldn’t. I’m not so sure. Been barred from both of the shelters in the downtown area. Had a place to stay for the night, and was going to talk with Mike, the director of the Sienna Francis House on Monday to see about getting into a treatment program. I pray that he’ll make it there on Monday. Harry has much to offer, and needs a chance. But he has to take it.

Talked to a couple of other fellows today. Roger, a shorter fellow and Leo the atheist. Now I didn’t know until today that Leo was of that mindset. I do now. I asked him why? Said it wasn’t possible. What isn’t possible? None of this. How is God possible? And then we were interrupted. Now, Leo the atheist was feeling very little pain, so I’m not sure our conversation would have gone real far. So how is God possible? I’m not sure I’ve ever really hade this discussion with anyone before, not at this level anyway. It’ll be interesting over the next few times that I see Leo the atheist. I want to see why He’s not possible? I want to know what Leo the atheist believes and why?

For some reason, I’ve had a couple of opportunities to spend some good one on one time with Nick over the last couple of days. The two of us went to a movie on Saturday. The strangest thing happened. We went to a dollar theater. Both of us got in for two bucks. What a deal. It’s an older theater in South Omaha. I know that a few of our friends from the homeless community go there occasionally. We sat down in the darkened theater and I smelled it. The smell of homelessness. If you’ve ever smelled it, you never forget it. It was the strangest thing, because I kept looking around and saw no one that looked the part. It was like the guy was sitting right next to me. But nothing. And Nick smelled it too. My only thought leaving the theater was that this would be something that would be with us for the duration. We are becoming intertwined with it. This thing called homelessness. And this morning Nick was out in the garage keeping me company, helping and doing a little talking. Lots of talking actually. But one thing we did together was pray. We prayed over a pair of new sneakers. And Nick led. That God would bless those sneakers. This simple pair of sneakers for a guy named John. That God would bless them and bless John. It was a simple moment in the garage, but it was so symbolic to me in the bigger picture. Nick is a kid with lots of feelings. And when he gets inquisitive, he goes there. He was asking me all sorts of questions this morning. About my past. About my past vices. Innocent questions, because he really didn’t know the answers. And Nick is 10. So he doesn’t need to know every gory detail. But I shared with him that I did some things I’m not proud of . Things that dishonored God. I explained, to the best of my abilities, how difficult it is for some of our friends. I know. Been there in some cases. In Bryan’s case? Not so much. But does he deserve any less because of his choices and situation? Don’t think so. And does Harry deserve less because he’s had a rough life and continues to make bad choices? Nope. None of them are any different than any of us, just different circumstances. In 16212 (actually 16226 now…) days, a fellow can make lots of bad choices and find himself in lots of different circumstances.

We were blessed to honor God today. Even in the snow, with a hundred or so of our friends, we were blessed to be in the presence of our Lord. What a great day. What a blessing it is to serve people like Bryan and Harry alongside a great kid like Nick. Hopefully? We’ll do it for another 16212 days, the Good Lord willing.

"If you oppress poor people, you insult the God who made them; but kindness shown to the poor is an act of worship....Proverbs 14:31 (GNT)

Peace and have a great and blessed week!

“…it matters to that one…”