Some of you know B.B. some of you don’t but he came to me a couple of months ago begging to get in a residential program somewhere…anywhere. I called several places and one of them told me they had a bed available. I told B.B. to meet me at 8 o’clock the next morning and then didn’t see him for several weeks.
I don’t go looking for guys that don’t keep their appointments and when I see them again I don’t talk about it unless they do. This is their choice and when they’re ready then it’s between them and the Lord.
So B.B. has been on the street for several months since then. He has shown up occasionally and nothing has changed. He still mingled on The Block. He still disappeared with a select few for days at a time. No job. No hope. No future.
He started hanging out again a week ago on a more regular basis and we got to talk a little more. He kept telling me he had to leave. He had to get away from the drugs and his friends.
This past Sunday he showed up at church. He went with several of us to lunch afterwards and pulled me aside and said Pastor Harris was going to call me about helping him…meaning B.B.
Pastor did call that afternoon and told me B.B. wanted help with a bus ticket to Michigan and Pastor said, “I just blurted out that I would. I don’t know why. I just did. I told him we would do what we could but I needed to talk to you.”
Pastor wanted to know if this guy was legit and if we could split the cost. I told him I would get with B.B. to get the real story. Or as “real” as I could.
B.B.s aunt in Ann Arbor told him he could come and stay with them and she could get him a job. He lived there before and he stayed clean. They are a Christian family and want the best for him.
So yesterday morning I dropped B.B. off at the Greyhound Station in Dallas with a ticket to Ann Arbor along with $40 for food on the road. He left at 1 yesterday afternoon and will arrive there late this afternoon. 27 hours on a bus.
Pastor Harris has a good heart and I am so grateful that the Spirit of God blurted out of Pastor’s mouth, “I’ll help.”
I pray for my friend B.B. I pray he finds the peace he has searched for in drugs and alcohol. I pray he finds Life in our Lord. I pray he finds Real Joy in the embrace of our Father. I pray we’ll all be vulnerable to the point of blurting out “I’ll help” when the need arises.
20 We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. 2 Corinthians 5:20 | MSG