About a week or so ago, I was out on a city walk with a group and we stopped by Woodruff park to see how everyone was doing. As we were wandering through the park visiting with several of our homeless friends, a man asked my wife if he could use her phone to make an important call. She quickly responded, “Absolutely.” The gentleman then introduced himself as David Davis and began dialing his number.
Once he completed his call, he handed the phone back to Alicia and then began explaining his situation to her. After a few minutes of his story, Alicia called me over to see how I could help. Mr. Davis was in a position we find all too many people in. He was being evicted from his apartment because the land lord is a crazy drug user and wanted him out for no real reason. He had been on the street for three months prior to finding the apartment and did not want to end up right back on the street after staying there for only a week.
Mr. Davis receives a SSI check and is on a fixed income. He had tried time and time again to receive HUD housing, but kept being denied because of an assault charge that has been on his record for 10+ years. He and all his stuff were about to be on the street in two days if something did not happen quickly.
On a side note: What is a man in this position supposed to do??? Society has made it almost impossible for convicts, sex offenders, etc… to get back into society. I digress…
As a final act of desperation, Mr. Davis filed again with the HUD housing to see if he could get in. I don’t know why, but this time it went through. To be honest, I can’t believe it went through. And, it only took three days.
Yesterday, I drove to the apartment that Mr. Davis had been evicted from and helped him load all of his earthly belongings into my car. When I got there he was waiting outside with all of his stuff. As a matter of fact, he had stayed outside with his stuff all night because it had been placed on the curb by his landlord. We then moved his belongings to his new apartment.
When we got done moving all of his stuff into his one bedroom apartment that is no bigger than my office, Mr. Davis said, “No more shelter”. He was home.
I share this story for two reasons...
1. To encourage you with positive stories like these that happen day to day in my life.
... and ...
2. To show you how powerful a simple act of compassion can be. Alicia’s small act of compassion toward Mr. Davis lead to a chain reaction of love. By just being available to let a man use her phone Alicia played a role in getting Mr. Davis home.
This story should serve as a reminder to all to love others with our actions no matter how big or small the act may seem. Live Love to others and see how your life will make a difference.
1 comments:
Drew:
It amazes me how many folks are simply too afraid to ask for help. Martin Seligman,author of Authentic Happiness says that each of us are born with a word in our hearts -- for optimists the word is "yes" and for pessimists the word is "no". I liken it to living in love (yes!) or in fear (no!). How great it is that Mr. Davis did ask for help and that he had the persistence to try and try again. He was not defined by his circumstances. Shouldn't we all be so very grateful that God does not define us by our circumstances?
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