"This is My Truth"

“This is My Truth”

Manna House is a place where we come to listen and to be heard, to share stories and our lives.  Some days the stories run between deep sorrow and deep joy.

Al came by today.  I hadn’t seen him for quite a while.  I wondered where he had been.

“I’ve been in rehab,” he said, “sober now for eight months.”

I noticed his eyes were starting to water, and he sniffled a little bit as he talked.  Al isn’t a softie.  I certainly would never expect him to get emotional, and why was he starting to cry anyway?

“You remember Howard?”

“Sure I do, he was quite the character.”

“Well, when he died, I was lost.  I didn’t know what to do.  I just knew I didn’t want to die on the streets.  But I kept drinking.”

I just kept listening.

“You know I’d be dead without the love I got at Manna House.  You guys loved me so much I started loving myself.  I got into rehab.”

“Thank you Al,” I said, and I reached out to shake his hand as my eyes started to water a little too.  “I’m so very happy you’re sober and living.”

Phil told me he was newly homeless.

“I was living in my car.  Then one day another car ran into me.  I woke up in the Med.  I spent a few days there and then they released me to the streets Monday.  So here I am.  No car.  No place to live.  I never thought I’d be homeless, but here I am down on my luck.”

It is not so easy to find work in this economy, and a minimum wage job won’t get you off the street.  I was wearing my Workers Interfaith Network t-shirt, “Fight Poverty, Pass the Living Wage.”

Phil continued, “My Grandpa gave me some advice, ‘Treat people well on the way up because you never know when you might need help on the way down.’  I’m a college graduate.  I’ve had good jobs.  But I was laid off and then divorced and I only had my car, but now after the accident that’s gone too.”

Mark interrupted us, “Hey Pete, what’s the Word for today?  I need the Word for today”

Phil said he would also like to hear the Word.

So, I read, “Live by the Spirit… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control”(Galatians 5:16, 22-23).

“That’s a good one,” said Phil, “I always try to live by those.  I think my Grandpa did too.”

Tommy wanted to sing today.  He didn’t know why except it just seemed like a fine day to sing.  So he sang “My Redeemer Lives.” I thought he said he was going to sing, “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” but instead of that classic it was a simple praise hymn.   His voice was clear, and he slowly made his way through the song that he made much more solemn and significant in his struggles with alcoholism and mental illness and being on the streets.  

“I know He rescued my soul… 

My shame, He’s taken away.

My pain, He’s healed in His name.”

“You know,” he said when he was finished singing, “This is my truth.”