Crazy People

The comment from lbd on my last entry sparked a memory and a thought.

Some years ago I had occasion to drive one of our city’s busiest streets heading downtown several times a week. Now and then I’d see a man standing on a street corner. Around his neck he wore a large framed picture of Jesus—you know, the one with the bleeding heart? It was secured by a string of some kind. On the ground next to him was a homemade signboard propped up in some way. Stuck to it were big stickers that said, “Stop Abortion Now.” He would gesture to passing cars, shouting out something which I couldn’t hear with my windows up and air conditioning on. But it wasn’t hard to image what he was saying.

My reaction each time was, “What a nut! This guy has serious mental problems. Somebody needs to help this guy.” I couldn’t have been more dismissive. Once I saw him driving an old car with the stop abortion signs plastered all over it. His driver’s side window was down and he was gesturing out the window—sometimes with both hands. And shouting. I was thankful he was driving on the other side of the street in the opposite direction.

Then one day I had a different reaction—I don’t know why. It struck me that maybe he wasn’t mentally ill. Maybe he was passionate about something that he believed Jesus was passionate about. Maybe he was following Jesus as well as he knew how, spreading the message he believed Jesus would be spreading. It didn’t matter to him if people thought he was nuts. Jesus’ own family thought he was nuts at one point and tried to get him to shut up and come back home where he belonged. And where they could take care of him. And avoid embarrassment. Maybe this man on the street corner had something many of us lack: a passionate determination to proclaim Jesus’ message no matter what the cost and no matter what people thought.

I don’t make that drive very often any more. I haven’t seem the man in some years. I sometimes wonder what happened to him. Did he finally give up, believing it was futile to call people to change their minds for the sake of their souls? Did his family grab him up and put him some place safe? Did he get arrested once too many times for being a public nuisance? Did his heart break? I don’t know.

You know, I kind of miss the guy. Because after I stopped thinking he was a loony, seeing him always provoked me to examine my own dedication. What I’ve been thinking about is this: is our passion for the causes of Jesus so clearly displayed that people think we’re nuts?

Peace, Jerry+