The phone rang the other day, and a voice on the other end of the line asked a question; Is this Don Bowman, to which I answer tentatively, expecting some sort of sales pitch, "yes it is, what can I do for you?"
Then another question; "are you the Don Bowman who was a school teacher?" I replied again in the affirmative, wondering who this was I supposed to know them from somewhere. I could not place the voice and wondered if it was a long ago student.
The caller must have noticed my hesitancy and said, "this is ________, remember me?"
Truthfully I said "no" and he proceeded to tell me he was with me on a Kairos walk at Ware State Prison some years back. Having worked with 42 guys on each walk, and having served on the teams for at least 10 walks, there was the possibility of him being one of 420 men that participated on that 4 day Christian retreat in that prison over that time period.
But then he went on to tell me why he had called. He just wanted to thank me for taking the time to come to prison and minister there. He thanked me for the time that I had spent with him and how much it meant that a man from the "outside" would take the time to come and just treat him like a member of the human race.
So many times those men had been treated as faceless, less than human, and forgotten by a society that valued them as worthless. Just to have someone acknowledge them, and talk with them, and be interested in them could be a powerful thing in their lives.
What did we talk about? What did I say to him? It could have been about Jesus, or it could have been about college football, who could remember? What mattered was that one person was in need and another saw them, not as a number, but as an individual face.
Now I don't relate all of this to say how good I am, God knows that is not true, but to remind myself about the importance of people that He puts into my life, some for a brief moment and some for a long time. Seeing them, really seeing them, can make a huge difference. Chance encounters? No way!
I think of my three kids, not kids but adults now, and all working in some part of the education process. At the beginning of each school year, or each term, they do not know who will be in their classes or their labs or even on their campuses. God has placed them in that particular spot, and He alone knows the impact that one person can have in their lives. He knows those needy ones, what they are looking for, and what He has in store for their lives. Each of us only have one responsibility, to see them as important and to minister where He leads.
But instead of patting myself on the back for helping to raise 3 good kids who are making an impact on the lives of young people (and I acknowledge that my good wife was the most responsible for the positive outcomes), and not remembering that I did such an awesome job in prison, which I definitely did not, I see the many times that I have not seen so many that have come my way. Whether I have been too busy with my own things or what, I have not been engaged.
God reminds me yet again to see the people he puts there in my life, for whatever time period, and be sensitive enough to treat them as He would have me do.
Sometimes a conversation, sometimes a quick word, and sometimes maybe just a smile, but something to say, "You are worth something and I show love to you because God does love you." Jesus' words from Matthew 25:
"Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."
Let that not be said of me, please.
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