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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

"Joe"


If you think you can't make a difference,
think again.

~Paul J. Meyer


     Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission.  Prior to his conversion, Joe had gained the reputation of being a hopeless wino for whom there was no hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto.  But following his conversion to a new life with God, everything changed.  Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known.
     Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never any task that was too lowly for Joe to take on. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some violently sick person or scrubbing the toilets after careless men left the men's room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face and a seeming gratitude for the chance to help.  He could be counted on to feed feeble men who wandered into the mission off the street and to undress and tuck into bed men who were to out of it to take care of themselves.
     One evening, when the  mission director was delivering his evangelistic message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, one man looked up,came down the aisle to the alter and knelt to pray, crying out for God to help him change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, "Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!"
     The director leaned over and said to the man, "Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, "Make me like Jesus!"
     The man looked up at the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, "Is he like Joe?"

~Unknown

~Beannaichte'
5 September, 2012 


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