Pepperoni and Jalapenos Type Guy

May 18, 2007

Tim is a pepperoni and jalapenos type guy.  He was taking the time away from his other ministry – painting the new Fry St. Mission – to tell me his story.

“I’m not going to get into all that stuff… you know…drugs and all that stuff.  People have heard that before or been there themselves.  What’s important is my relationship with the Lord.  If we love Him and love each other, then everything’s going to be fine.  If we don’t, the rest doesn't really matter, ya know?”

We were sitting at the booth right behind the hostess-manager-cashier at Bari’s.  Apparently Tim and the manager-cashier were old friends – she teased him by pretending not to notice him when he asked for a table.  We struggled to get into the conversation at first…a discussion about something important and intimate between a couple of guys that weren't as close as they probably should have been.

There were the necessary interruptions here and there. The manager got our drinks herself, clearly taking special care of us – a bud and a coke.  The waiter followed quickly,“What can I get for you?”  Tim gives me a “you first” signal so I ordered a calzone.  He stares into the space above my head, recalling meals gone by, and says “Give me a coupla slices of pepperoni…with jalapenos”.  Actually, there wasn’t much of a pause.  Tim knew what he wanted – a coupla slices of pepperoni with jalapenos.

He picked up where he left off, “Nobody wants to hear that stuff.”

Then I told Tim how I came to ask him to give his story.  He said, “Yeah, Shepherd has a good story too.  He feels bad about doing drugs for three or four years – geez – I got high every day for thirty-five years.  Every day!  You name it, I’ve tried it.  But, now this was in the ‘60s.  I smoked a joint every day up until about seven or eight years ago.  It’s hard to give up -- I liked it! It made me feel good.  And cigarettes…I smoked constantly.  That’s an addiction!  I stopped once for four years and had one cigarette and that was it.  I quit again about five years ago, but I would love a cigarette right now.  Oh yeah, I would love a cigarette.  The wife too… she chews gum every night after dinner.”

He seemed to be both amazed and disappointed at the same time, “It’s a struggle.  We’re sinners – we always will be.  The Holy Spirit gives us strength and encouragement to give those things up… and we do… for awhile.  But we hold onto them.  We don’t really want to give them up.  The Lord will free us from this stuff if we’ll just let it go, but we won’t.  We’ll pick it back up again.  We just have to do our best.  That’s what I think anyway.  As long as we’re alive, we’ll struggle and we’ll fail.  But the Lord will pick us back up again.  I’m sorry for doing those things, but I don’t really feel guilty.   Christ took care of that on the cross.  So, I don’t see anything to be gained by our feeling guilty about it.  It’s not like His death couldn't cover it, right?”

Tim ended the story…“As long as we love Him and love each other – that’s what matters – this stuff just... doesn't. Ya know?

He finished off his pizza and we went back to Fry St. by way of Oak and Hickory.  I went in the mission house to use the restroom.  When I left a few minutes later, Tim already had his brushes out and was painting trim on the mission doors.

As you can tell from the date, I wrote this several years ago - Tim and I know each other much better now and I'm afraid Tim's friend at Bari's is gone. I hope Tim remembers that he gave me permission to tell this story. Tim may regret that now -- not because he has any concerns about people knowing he ever used drugs -- he still doesn't care about that. He may not like it because the story reflects somewhat favorably on him. Tough luck Tim -- I can't help it if Christ looks good on you ... or in you.

Galatians 3:23-29