Lunch with Tom, a long time friend.  We got together for lunch every few weeks for some reason, I never figured out why.    He was more an acquaintance than a friend  because he was a hard guy to be around.  Lunch conversation was about his problems at work, or at home or with his kids, or with the 49’ers.  He was probably the most negative person I had ever met.  Yet I liked him for certain qualities I could see were there, ones he did a good job hiding, not intentionally, I’m sure.

The more life experienced readers of this blog may recall a comic strip called Lil Abner.  One of the characters who got included occasionally was named Joe Blzaphult (I’m unsure of the spelling.  It was just an unpronounceable name).  Joe was always drawn with a black cloud over his head.  If anything bad were going to happen, it would be to Joe Blzaphult.  Sort of a “Woe is me” kind of guy.  Tom was like that.

I always felt better after our lunches, despite the nature of our conversations. Perhaps I was thinking, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

When more than the usual number of weeks had gone by, I called him to renew our lunch acquaintance.  When he answered the call, he sounded strangely upbeat. We set the lunch date.

Tom was a different man.  He had dramatically changed.  There were no “poor me” stories, nothing bad to say about anyone or anything.  I couldn’t believe it!   The change was so amazingly different I had to ask him what caused his new persona.  He told me the story.

His wife had been afraid he was slipping into a depression, and she urged him to seek counseling.  He refused that.  He didn’t need it.  Denial.   A typical response.  But he did agree to go talk to his minister.

His minister knew him pretty well, and after a short conversation, the pastor gave him a list and told him ” I want you to go visit one of these people every day until you have seen everyone on the list.”  They were all people who were in the hospital, a rest home or for some reason, were unable to get to church.

“Just drop in and say hello.  You don’t have to stay long, just go to them.  And if you feel like it, pray with them briefly before you leave.”

My friend (a better term now) said he did what the pastor asked, but reluctantly.  “The first two or three visits were hard,” he said, “but then it got easier.  I didn’t start to pray with anyone until I got to the fourth shut-in.  It got so I looked forward to seeing them.” He pulled a sheet of paper from his vest pocket and showed me the list. There were over 25 names on the list.

“After the first ten, I felt I was doing something important, and I asked the pastor for some more names.  I’m still visiting these people.  I have visited some more than once or twice. And do you know what happened?  I realized that this task given to me by the pastor was designed to get me thinking about others instead of myself. I had no woes compared to them.  Infrequent friends and acquaintances warmed up to me, even my wife and kids began to say I was a pleasure to have around the home. ”

I commented on his personality change, and he said it was part of God’s plan for him.  Once he began serving others his “giving” spirit showed and the light of Christ was evident to all around him.

His parting words were “Whenever you are down, try helping  somebody up!”

Amen