The Everyday Club

2/26/11    Jonathan,    20
At a park I met a young man named Jonathan on the sidewalk, asking if he had time to answer a few questions. "I'll try, but I've got a lot on my mind. I just got kicked out of the house and I don't know where to go". He was obviously very upset and overwhelmed about this, and I counseled him a while, finding out that he had moved to Chicago from Arizona a month ago to live with his girlfriend, and now had no money or job prospects. He had no idea why she kicked him out, but from what he told me it sounded like an old boyfriend had come back into the picture. Jonathan had some hard lessons to learn, both about the importance of doing things God's way and just about life and relationships in general. Distracted as he was by his anger and frustration I didn't think he would be able to hear the gospel, and I didn't want to come across as a self-righteous "I told you so" church guy or like those described in James who say "Go in peace, be warm and fed" without doing anything, yet I didn't see how I could help. I wanted to just counsel him and go on without bringing God into the conversation, because I felt like he would likely then get angry at Christians and God for not giving him a quick fix to his problems. But before I could go he asked "What were those questions you wanted to ask me?" We talked some about his beliefs but he really couldn't concentrate - his thoughts kept returning to his situation. I told him he needed to hang around a while to work things out, so he said he would go to a nearby library to read for a while, and I gave him just the book to read - "One Second After You...Die" by Mark Cahill. Should I have gotten further involved with this young man's problems? I may never know, but I pray that I did just enough.