Santa Claus has cancer.
First, if you do nothing else about this post, I desperately urge you to go read Leonard Pitts Jr's editorial
"Ailing 'Santa' is receiving gifts this Christmas".(Unfortunately, the Herald wants your info to read the column. I re-tell the story below anyway) It originally ran in the Miami Herald, but was reprinted today in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
I was literally moved to tears. This man, Larry Stewart, a wealthy 58-year old businessman, instantly became one of my very favorite people. I think he's a believer, but I'm not sure. Irregardless, he taught me more about how to live my faith than any one I can remember. This man is literally a saint.
It started in 1979, with a 20 something Larry was eating at a drive up restaurant. He had just lost his job the week before Christmas for the second year in a row and was feeling low. Then he noticed the waitress. I'll quote the man if you don't mind. "It was cold and the carhop didn’t have on a very big jacket and I thought to myself, 'I think I got it bad. She’s out there in the cold making nickels and dimes.' "
He gave a her a twenty on a two or three dollar tab, and told her to keep the change. No small gesture in 1979. The woman's desperate, tearful thank you changed his life.
He withdrew $200 from his bank and passed it out to those who looked needy. And thus began almost three decades of anonymous giving. Reporters were allowed to follow him as he did his work, on the condition he not be named.
Now Larry has cancer, and he might miss his first Christmas since the Carter Administration. Mr. Pitts seems to think he might have let himself be reveled so that the kindness doesn't die with him. It won't. I won't let it. I don't have a lot to give, but I am going to give. And I challenge you. Anyone reading. Twenty Bucks. That's where he started. You can break it up in to four $5 bills, or give someone the whole twenty. Just find someone in need, and give it. If you really can't, give 10. Give five. But don't just drop it in a red kettle in a store front (a good charity, to be sure). Put it in a person's hand.
And if you do it to the least of these, you know what you get.
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And that's enough for now.
Brian Norwood
Platypi Online: The Platypus Portal
posted by Brian Norwood @ 6:43 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
IT TRULY IS A BEAUTIFUL STORY ABOUT A BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING, I AM ALSO INSPIRED, I TOO WILL FIND SOMEONE WHO COULD USE A TWENTY, AND I WILL GIVE IT- THANK YOU BRIAN, AND THANK YOU LARRY!
Brian
Great story! Larry really is living out Matthew 25 (whether he knows it or not). I'm stoked that his life pushed you to action. That is a testimony in and of itself. It makes me think of how our actions of kindness can be much more meaningful than we know. Deb and I recently received the honor of having Nick Adkins over for Thanksgiving dinner with our family. You remember Nick, he was the homeless guy that started meeting with us in Fairmont Park a few years back. After, and during, his meetings with us Nick went through a sober-living home (to get himself off meth). Officially "clean" he joined the Set Free ranch for the homeless, addicted, and basically downtrodden, in Cabazon, CA. From there he grew into a leader at the ranch, and eventually Nick was sent with a team to Kansas City, Missouri to plant a new church (which they did, and is going strong today). During his time in Missouri he helped to start a ranch for the homeless, addicts, and street people. He, and a team from the newly formed church, went down to New Orleans, just after Katrina, and helped for over a month; getting people out and serving their needs. He started his pastoral training, and has learned so much. In recent months Nick returned to California. He has supervised a ranch in Fontana, created a car-washing works program to fund the ranches, and has worked on a church plant in the downtown Riverside area. His life has been one of constant service for the last three years, and it all started from our (yourself included) kindness in Fairmont Park. 20 bucks can go a long way, and a kindness for eternity.
Ben
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