The Guy with the Chain

Remember the posting a couple of days ago where we mentioned "that some guy attacked another guy with a thick steel chain"? Well, guess who came to the House of Hospitality today?! The Guy with the Chain!! During lunch, I asked him, "Haven't I seen you before?" And he explained that I had seen him on Tuesday night. Then it occurred to me, "You're the guy with the chain!" He laughed and said, "Did I look pretty angry that night." I said he did. He explained that the fight was over an unresolved financial issue where a guy owed him some money but wasn't willing to pay it. I asked if he had gotten hurt during the fight, to which he replied, "I was the one with the chain, remember?"

we really enjoyed getting to know him. He has an interest in God and the Bible and can quote scripture and stories. He explained that during time spent in jail, he and some other inmates would have bible studies and prayer time together. When he got out of jail it meant that he had lost his Christian network. He is struggling with drugs and has been prostituting on and off for the last 14 years. One thing that Nathaniel commented on was his honesty. The fight a couple of nights ago, for instance; he came right out and said what he had done and why he had done it. He didn't try to play it off as if he had been attacked or try to convince us of the other guy's wrong doing. He was very open and straightforward about everything. If there was something he didn't want to talk about he just stated that, rather than coming up with some wild story. Roger and I both tend to trust Nathaniel's judgment of character when it comes to these guys.

I had a really interesting chat with one of the other guys who came to the House of Hospitality today. He's come about twice before and is always pretty open to chatting. He admitted to me that he is back to using drugs again. It was kind of a blow because he was coming up for almost 10 days without using, which is the longest he's ever gone. We were all praying for him and trying to encourage and support his decision to stop using. He explained, "I didn't go out looking for drugs, but instead it found me." He didn't get into details, but basically I think he means that someone else had some drugs and offered it to him and he was too weak to resist. He said, "I wish I could just walk away from situations like that."

As we kept talking about it, he asked what I thought to be an extremely thought-provoking question: Why do we poison ourselves? Drugs are similar to alcohol and cigarettes in the sense that it does damage and is addictive, although maybe a bit more, but for the most part it has the same affect. So why is it that the human race enjoys poisoning themselves?