Cowboy Tree

why is it that i am so selfish that i can't focus on someone else's story for 45 minutes just because it's getting cold outside...

on my way home from errands/meetings/general stuff today, i passed a man who was holding a sign that told the world he was hungry...
Mark 2:7-12 says that if our enemy is hungry, we should feed him... so i would imagine that we should do the same (if not more) for those who we are not even at odds with. besides the fact that He tells us, also, to give away our extra clothing to those who are cold and share the food (and money for food?) that the Lord has blessed us with - enough to afford meals for both of us - with anyone who is hungry.

anyways... i won't lie, my thought process was not as "holy" as i would like to claim...
my initial reaction was to get him food.
my second thought was, "no way. you're, like, 20 seconds away from finally being home. also, you'll have to turn around, and 288 is the inner circle of Hell... don't get back in that. no way."
i drove a little further and had to turn around. so i drove through chic fil a and picked up some chicken soup and water for the hungry man on the street.

as i talked with him on the side of the road in the gas station parking lot, just asking him about his life and who he was, he asked me if he could play me a song on his harmonica to thank me for the soup. i said, of course, "Absolutely, you can!" As he was finishing his song (which he played SO passionately, i might add!), another man (i won't lie, he was kind of awkward, the new man. dressed in his preppy dockers pants and sweater that his wife, no less, must have picked out for him or given him for christmas) walked up and brought the hungry man another meal.

we talked some more and found out that the man's name is "Cowboy Tree" ( i think his real name is Richard). He lives in a tent just outside of Denton and has a Coleman stove to heat up food and keep him warm. he also has to beg for money since he has no job and the fuel for his coleman stove is "six damn dollars a gallon". ;)

anyways. the experience was interesting, and cold, but i'm so glad that it happened. he proceeded to play another song for us. he played "how great Thou art". it was beautiful. standing on the side of the road that is Hell, and singing praises to the Lord, with an awkward preppy man from oregon, to a harmonica's accompaniment played by a man who lives in a tent.
did i expect that to happen today?
uh...no.
do i love that it happened?
absolutely.
did i learn something?
boy, did i.... i am so selfish. i wanted nothing more than to get in my car and drive home to my warm apartment. i couldn't last 45 minutes outside without my selfish humanity kicking me in the face.

i'm sorry :/
my prayer is for many many more experiences like this. i hope that my journey to/in spain is laden with so many of these experiences that i can't remember to tell you all about them. God uses the strangest things/encounters to teach me/us about my/our sinful humanity, but also about how to love more like Him...

man, i have a long way to go. but i'm so thankful for sanctification (as much as it sucks...).

anyways. if you think about it, or if you would just take a minute right now and pray for Richard. He loves the Lord, and it is so evident in the way that he speaks, but i think that he has been hurt by the church. he refuses to go to one because of the unreal number of hypocrites and the fact that he refuses to be lead by a man who isn't any more holy than he is... some of his views are kind of skewed and he is just very turned off by the thought of church, period. he has become so closed-minded to the idea of it. i pray that the Lord softens his heart, and that He just plain romances him even more than He has.

well, that's all. just say a little prayer for Cowboy Tree when you get a moment.
God is cool. the way that he works is awesome, and i hope that i never cease to honestly proclaim that...