Growth & Development

I’ll never forget that ride home. Mike was in an ecstatic mood. Seated in the middle of the back seat he was leaning forward over our seats with his arms extended behind each of our shoulders and talking excitedly. His pungent odor, more than being an irritant, was the sweet smelling savor of redemption. Between exclamations of praise he began to share with us in dramatic fashion the startling circumstances leading up to our “chance” meeting, moments earlier on the street. We learned that the night before, while he lay shivering covered only with cardboard against the freezing temperatures and seemingly at the end of his rope, he had cried out to God. Pleading for a miraculous breakthrough in his life he gave God a twenty-four hour ultimatum. If by days end, he vowed, his lot in life did not change, he would put an end to it. Our encounter was indeed the unmistakable answer to his prayer of desperation.