Simple missions render inspiring lessons A STORY WORTH TELLING
“Everyone you meet has a story of victory or defeat, success or failure, some life experience worth sharing.”
— My lecture notes from teaching writing courses
My objective for going into the dreaded supercenter was simple. My goals were achievable: Get in, get what I needed and get out.
That mission completely fell apart in the coffee aisle last week.
I usually avoid small talk, but a chance conversation with a smiling elderly man completely disarmed me.
“Hello,” I greeted him as he rounded the corner. I was polite while searching for Green Mountain Maple Pecan coffee.
“How are you?” he countered, stopping to avoid walking in front of me.
“Better than I deserve,” I said with a chuckle. “Come ahead, sir. I’m in no rush.”
He shuffled past me with short, cautious steps. A forward lean suggested many years of aging joints and a glaze in his gray eyes completed the portrait of a man who had seen life across many decades.
Once past me, he stopped and looked back.
“I’m a Vietnam vet, you know.”
“Bless you,” I said.
“And thank you for your service defending our great country.”
“Thank you,” he said, then added, “But I’m a preacher now.”
“Well, bless you for that service as well,” I said. “Thank you for your dedication to sharing God’s word.”
Citing names of Vietnam regions he’d seen, and battles noted in the history of that war, he finished with, “My life was different back then. I drank and gambled. The war was tough — took a lot out of a man.”
“Yessir,” I said, pausing my search for coffee. “I’m sure that’s an understatement.”
“I hadn’t been back home long when I was in a card game one night. There was a lot of money in that game,” he said. “And I won all of it. Alcohol was involved, of course, and that’s not a good thing when you’re pocketing all the money on the table.”
He added, “I was walking away when a guy … ‘bout as far away as that lady pushing that buggy … took a shot at me.” He pointed at a woman shopping down the aisle.
He patted the back of his head and said, “Hit me right back here.”
I grimaced, incapable of imagining what that must have been like. I said nothing, just listened, slowly turning my head from side to side in disbelief.
“They told me later I should have died,” he said. “Took a long time to get over it, but I told the Lord that if he was willing for me to make it, I was willing to spend my life telling others about him. How he saved me; turned my life around. And how he can do that for anyone who loves him.”
“What an amazing story,” I said. “Are you a full-time minister at a church around here?”
“Oh no,” he replied.
“Retired from that long time ago. Don’t get around like I used to.
I just preach here and there.”
Then he added with a twinkle in his eye, “Sometimes, I preach in the stores.”
“Well, I enjoyed the sermon,” I said and shook his hand.
And just like that, in no more than five minutes of listening, a stranger’s incredible story transformed my routine grocery “go and grab” mission into an inspiring lesson.
Truly, a story worth telling.
Contact Aldridge at leonaldridge@gmail. com. Other Aldridge columns are archived at leonaldridge.com.
