October Jones

I stopped at the gas station to fill the car up with gas before traveling back to the school. I had just spent the afternoon up at the church getting some work done and it was about 10:30pm. It was very dark outside and very downtown Fort Worth. Not the safest.

Just as I started to pump gas, October Jones appears out of the shadows with his right hand stuffed down into a black bag. My immediate thought - God, I'm going to die.

I didn't die.

October Jones pulled out three bottles of Dove shampoo and asked if I had a girlfriend. How nice of you October Jones, you want to wash my hair, kill me, then hunt down my girlfriend and kill her too. Rather, October Jones informs me that he wants to sell me these three bottles of shampoo for just $10. He said that he desperately needed this last ten bucks so that he could make the payment on his light bill.

I smiled at the man and awkwardly fumbled around with the gas nozzle as I tried to think of some excuse to not give the man my money. The thought was quickly replaced with something I had heard one of my professors say a couple of months ago. He was telling a story to our class of a time he had been at a restaurant with other ministers and a man walked in and made his rounds to each table handing out little ornaments with a card attached that read:

"I am deaf and mute and cannot get a job. Would you please purchase this ornament for $5 to help me?"

Each pastor at the table got one of these ornaments and the common jokes were made about walking up behind this person and screaming to see if they would respond in any way. My professor said his thoughts and comments were that this guy was a fake, or at the least he was a lazy deaf and mute that didn't try to get a job.

But my professor watched as one of the ministers at the end of the table asked all of the other pastors to pass their ornament to him. He took up all of the ornaments and as the conversation continued he quietly placed a twenty dollar bill on the ornaments and handed them all back to the deaf/mute man as he came back to collect.

My professor was shocked and later asked the pastor why he gave so much money to help that man buy his next beer or drug or whatever the addiction was. The pastor looked at my professor and quoted Matthew 25:35-40:

"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

The pastor, with true sincerity said, "I would much rather take the chance of losing a few bucks and fueling an addiction than showing up in heaven and having Jesus ask me why I didn't feed him when was hungry, give him drink when he was thirsty, or clothe him when he needed clothes."

So, back to October Jones. I told him that I didn't want the shampoo for my girlfriend - she probably wouldn't even use it, but that I wanted to give him $10 anyways to help pay for his light bill. He didn't know how to respond. So I continued. I asked him if he had anything I could pray with him about (besides to light bill). October Jones told me that he is fine - he is a Christian and prays three times a day. I handed over the ten bucks and shook his hand telling him that I would pray for him tonight and he walked away.

Did October Jones use the money for his light bill? Maybe. Probably not. But when I go to heaven and Jesus tells me thanks for the ten dollars, I am going to smile.