Impressive People
Theme of the Week: Can You Relate?
John Sloan
Monday, January 6, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: So accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified (Romans 15:7). Bonus Reading:1 Samuel 16:5-7
Invited to a lunch to meet folks from the business community, I awkwardly stood there, hands in pockets, approached by no one (not even the man who invited me)—until Mark walked up and began a conversation with me.
Mark has a degenerative neural disorder; at times he moves involuntarily and irregularly. At the luncheon he wasn't in a position to be shaking hands and impressing potential business partners. He'd have done that better at the end of a phone line.
I only met one other person that day. That was Bill, whom Mark introduced me to. Bill was stooped. His head was a bit misshapen on one side too, and he talked in almost a whisper. Bill was recovering from the removal of tumors in his brain. That didn't stop him from extending me a warm greeting.
I'm sure the three of us weren't the business community's idea of the Welcome Wagon and its slickest crew. I could tell by the way most people veered in a wide arc around us as we stood talking before lunch. Yet no one could have made a better impression on me. I never went back to another business luncheon, but I did become friends with Mark and Bill.
—John Sloan in The Barnabas Way
My Response: A person on the margins I could reach out to is …
Thought to Apply: Winter, spring, summer, or fall / All you have to do is call / And I'll be there, / You've got a friend
—Carole King (in 1970s song)
Adapted from The Barnabas Way (WaterBrook, 2002) by permission.
Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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