Lunch was served in a common room on the first floor. There were three tables with chairs. To his right there was a cut out in the wall and he could see a small kitchen through the opening. There were a couple of old couches along the back wall where they came in. The opposite wall was mostly sliding glass doors that opened to an enclosed courtyard. Joe could see some picnic tables outside leaning up against a wall. Instead of linoleum the floor was varnished wood. He had expected the eating area to be more like a cafeteria or soup kitchen, but this was real homey. Sam and Polycarp were sitting at one of the tables with three other people. Joe noticed that Felicitas was one of them. They all looked up as the two new friends entered.
“Ah, I can see peace has been reached. Everyone is alive and happy,” Sam announced without pretension. “Joe, I think you know Felicitas. This other scruffy fellow is Jake Dougall. He calls himself ‘The Mayor of Rat Town,’ and I’ve never really gotten that. Jake does all our computer stuff. He has a room up on your floor, but most of the time he’s either in the library fixing a computer, or tinkering with a server, or shopping for parts, or on the phone with some tech guy speaking a language I’ll never know. He has single-handedly brought us into the Twenty First Century. Everyone has their gift and that is certainly his.
Jake reached across the table and took Joe’s hand, “Pleasure, Joe. Need any computer advice, come find me. See what I can do.”
“Thanks, your honor,” Joe responded, which made Jake smile.
“This beautiful soul next to Felicitas,” Sam continued, “is Maria Chavez.”
Maria stood and shook Joe’s hand. “Buenas tardes, senõr Joe. I have heard so much about you. Welcome.”
“I hope it’s good,” Joe said.
“She and Felicitas have taken the responsibility for all women’s ministries here at The Refuge,” Sam interjected.
“I think you’ve met Marge,” Sam said as he pointed. “She does the cooking and shopping. She is also ‘Mom’ to pretty much everyone but me.”
“Good to see you again, Marge,” Joe offered. “Thanks, by the way.”
“Just ‘Mom’, Joe. Everyone calls me Mom, even Sam. But he’s older’n me. Just so ya know.”
“Yes, Mom and I have difference of opinion on that. However, we are glad you are here, Joe,” Sam said smiling. “Why don’t we all sit down and have some food?”
Sam prayed and they ate. Spread out on the table was all the fixings for tacos: tortillas, spiced meat, diced onions and tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and various salsas. There were also bowls of refried beans, guacamole and sour cream. There was a big pitcher of ice tea. Everyone talked and ate and passed around the food. It was kind of messy and loud, but the food was wonderful. During the meal Joe looked around the table at the people who clearly enjoyed each other’s company. Could he fit in here? What did he have to offer? Well, he’d give it a month and leave the rest to God. After the tacos Marge brought out a big container of rainbow sherbet, which was the perfect finish to a great meal. As she served the ice cream, she said, “So, Joe, why don’t you tell everyone how you came back from the dead?”
“You all really want to hear that now?” Joe asked.
“You’re kidding me, Joe,” Jake said. “We’ve been dying to hear that story all day. Hey! Did I just say, ‘dying’? I think I made a joke.”
“Please Joe, tell your story,” Polycarp said, “before he tells another one.”
“Okay, but I’ll try to make it short.”
Joe gave an edited version of his whole saga, from the time he left the Refuge to coming back. The parts that involved Bruiser were kind of awkward, but when he looked over Bruiser nodded and he pressed on. At the end of his story he said: “I’m not a theologian, but I think I’ve learned something through all this. God’s plans are not hindered by our plans.” He looked at Bruiser. “I have no regrets. God was with me all the way.”
That seemed to be the signal for the end of lunch. Everyone began ferrying things to the kitchen and cleaning up. Afterward, Felicitas approached him.
“Joe, it’s so good to see you. When Bruiser showed up and told us what he’d done, we thought you were dead. What must that have been like for you?”
“Terror, shame, defeat all come to mind,” Joe said. “But, you know what?” He paused. “God brought a great victory through all that. I got the privilege to be a part of a miracle.”
“And now Bruiser’s recovery,” Felicitas added.
“Yeah, that’s true, isn’t it?”
“You suffered for a while, but now Bruiser has become a believer. God touched his life through you in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine. Sam told me once that each person in the world is the center of an ever-expanding circle of influence that transcends time and space.”
“That’s pretty profound.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So what are your plans, Joe? Are you going to hang around for a while this time, or are you off again?”
“Well, as I said at lunch, I found the Seven Truths. So now I am trying to become better at the Basic Lessons.”
“Who isn’t?”
“Yeah, I guess that must be true. Anyway, I’m staying here, at least for a month. I’m going to make myself available to The Refuge, and to God, and see what happens.”
“I’m glad, Joe.” Felicitas said as she got up. “I think you’re going to be great for the work here. I prayed for you every day, Joe, even when everyone thought you were dead. Listen, I’ve got things to do. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other a lot. It’s like a family here.” She hugged him. “It’s good to see you alive. I’ll see you later.”
Joe spent the rest of the day looking up some of the contacts the Cornell’s gave him. The first place he wanted to go was the computer store. He found Jake downstairs in the library.
“Hey, Jake. A friend wants to help me buy a computer and told me to ask for the store manager at a place called The Cyber Cave. What do you know about that?”
“Cyber Cave’s good. I bought a lot of stuff there over the years. Bob’s a good man. He won’t cheat you. I mean I know places that give me bigger discounts on software and peripherals, but the Cave’s alright. No problem there.”
“Thanks, Mayor,” Joe said as he left.
The Cyber Cave was six blocks from the Refuge. It took some persuasion to make the clerk believe that he wanted to talk to the store manager, but didn’t have a complaint or want a job. The manager was skeptical, but perked right up when Joe gave him the phone number in the envelope. The manager recognized it right away as his boss’s number. He called and confirmed and then immediately got the clerk to help Joe pick out a computer.
“Get whatever you want, Joe,” the manager told him. “I can sell you any desktop on the floor for $100 and any laptop for $250. Software and peripherals I’ll sell at cost. How does that sound?”
“That’s great. Thank you,” Joe responded. He decided he would rather have a laptop. He didn’t know a lot about computers, so he had to trust the clerk. In the end he walked away with a nice computer set up for wireless. He got a bag, a mouse and a little digital camera. He’d ask Jake about software.
His next stop was for a phone. After he stood in line for a half an hour with what seemed like a whole busload of teenage girls, the manager told him “I’ll give you our best phone and our best package no charge, but you’ll have to sign a two-year contract.”
“I don’t have a job yet,” Joe informed the man.
“I know, Joe. Roger Cornell vouched for you. That’s all I need. So, here is what I suggest,” he said as he moved to a display with a lot of phones attached. “This phone is what we call a ‘smart phone.’ Along with the basic phone features, it will keep your calendar, email and all that. You can go online with it if you want to. I’m throwing the service in with the package. It’s even got a little digital camera/camcorder in it. Real nice.”
“That’s great. I’ll take that,” Joe responded.
“And Joe,” the manager said, “do you want a job?”
“Are you offering me a job?” Joe asked.
“I’m offering you a job, Joe. It doesn’t start until next week, though. I’ve got a sales girl-er-person, whose quitting to have a baby.”
“Yes, if you’re offering, I’ll take it.”
“My name is Bill Blake. I’ll call you with the details.”
“Thanks for everything. I’ll be waiting for your call.”
After that Joe went to the clothing store. The clothes Pricilla made were great, but they weren’t the kind of clothes you wore to work in the city. The store manager told him he had a thousand dollar balance on account. A nice young woman helped him get some khaki’s, jeans, a couple different kinds of shoes, a hooded sweatshirt, and a half dozen different kinds of shirts. He also got underwear, socks, a belt and a pair of sunglasses. After it was all tallied up with tax he still had over three hundred dollars on account. He’d just have to come back later. By then he was so tired he called a cab. He didn’t realize shopping was so difficult. He got everything into his room and immediately fell asleep. He woke up when Polycarp got him for dinner.
At dinner he asked Jake about software and he recommended several things. He also suggested some excellent Bible Study software that Joe might consider. He gave Joe the web address.
“You can download the basic package and upgrade as you feel the need.”
As summer approached the weather got better and better. Joe spent his mornings helping out at The Refuge. He started at the phone store at eleven and worked until seven thirty. It was almost eight by the time he got back and Mom always had something saved for him in the kitchen. In the evenings he and Polycarp would play Cribbage on the roof, or he would seek Sam out to answer a question about the Bible. Some evenings a new person would show up and Joe helped out. Increasingly he found himself wondering what Felicitas was doing, and although she had things to do a lot of evenings, they found time to visit a couple of times a week. One night he finally got up the courage to ask her on a date. They were sitting in the courtyard where he’d first gotten to know her.
“Felcitas, I’ve got a friend who is doing some stand up at a local comedy club. He gave me some tickets for this Friday and I was wondering…would you like to go?”
“I’d love to, Joe, but the club scene brings back bad memories for me.”
“Even a comedy club?”
“A lot of the clubs are pretty close to each other. I’m just afraid I might see someone from my former life.”
“I understand.”
“It hasn’t been that long and the guy I worked for is still out there, and to be honest I’m still afraid of him.”
“Yeah, that’s okay. I understand.”
“Something else, maybe? On another night?”
“Sure. I’d like that.”
“What about dinner or a movie?”
“Or both?”
“Okay with me.”
“How about Friday after next?”
“I’ll be ready, Joe.”
“It’s a date, then.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.” She smiled at him and left.
Several days later, on his way to work, Joe sat at a bus stop reading his Bible. A nicely dressed young man sat down next to him. He was wearing a business suit. Joe looked up and smiled, but then went back to reading. After a few minutes he caught the man staring at him out of the corner of his eye. Joe looked up again.
“Can I help you?”
“I doubt it,” the young man said. He didn’t seem happy, and he didn’t offer any more information. He just stared at Joe.
“So, why are you staring at me?” Joe asked.
“I’m not staring at you.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t like you.”
“Really?” Joe asked. “Why is that?”
“I think you know.”
“Does my Bible offend you?”
“Yeah, your Bible offends me.”
“How about I just put it away?”
“Your religion offends me. You offend me.”
“I’m sorry,” Joe responded. There was a long silence. Joe was unsure of what to say. It seemed obvious to Joe that there was some kind of history here. Finally, the young man spoke.
“You Christians think you have all the answers, but you don’t.”
“Where’d you get that idea?” Joe asked.
“What?”
“Where did you get the idea that Christians think they have all the answers?”
“Well, look at you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re reading the Bible in public like you’re some kind of saint.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Yeah it is. It’s just like that.
“Do you think a person who reads a Bible is a saint?” Joe asked.
“What the hell? No!”
“But you kind of said that.”
“Forget that, then. You claim to believe in God, and you read the Bible to prove it, but you call the Bible the Word of God…like they prove each other or something. But it’s all crap because there is no God anyway. He’s not there. He doesn’t answer prayers. No one’s listening. No one. Just get over it.”
“No offense, but it sounds like you are the one having trouble getting over whatever ‘it’ is.”
“There’s no ‘it’. There’s no God. There is nothing. Just a black emptiness. And when people die, they just die. They breathe their last breath and then nothing.”
“Do you know what it sounds like to me?”
“What?”
“It’s like you’re saying, ‘There is no God, and I hate him.’”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” he declared as he stood up. “I’m saying ‘Why don’t you shut up and leave me alone.’”
As Joe watched him walk away something didn’t feel right. He couldn’t escape the feeling of menace. As soon as that thought formed in his mind he realized what had been bothering him. The young man looked familiar. It seemed incongruous, but he reminded Joe of the man who’d pointed at him when he first got back to The Refuge. “But it can’t be the same person.” Joe thought. It made no sense. The possibility that it could be the same person implied a conspiracy or something. Joe felt he was being paranoid and quit thinking about it.
Joe looked down at the Bible in his lap. The same Bible Abigail gave him. The same Bible Bruiser gave back to him just a few days ago. He opened to the presentation page and looked at the words Abigail had written. It seemed so long ago. He noticed someone had written on the other side. Joe turned the page. It was from Bruiser: “Joe, if you are reading this it means you are alive. I am writing this at The Refuge waiting to go turn myself in to the police for killing you. I don’t know what will happen, but whether you are alive or dead, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I hated you so much. I’m sorry for everything I put you through. If you are alive it would be a miracle, but that probably means you have some great thing to do in your life. –Bruiser”
The bus came and Joe got on. He thought about Bruiser’s comment. God had some ‘great thing’ for Joe to do. What did that mean? Both Philo and Paul had told him essentially the same thing. It was encouraging to Joe, but it didn’t answer his big question about the “what” of this great thing. That night on the roof he and Polycarp were playing Cribbage.
“Fifteen two, fifteen four, and a pair for six.” Polycarp moved his peg. Joe showed him what Bruiser wrote in the Bible.
“ A pair for two, a run of three for five, and nobs for six. Nothing in the Crib. So, any ideas what the great thing is?”
“Not exactly,” Polycarp answered as he shuffled the cards, “But you have to remember that the great thing may not be a great thing.”
“What’s that mean?”
“God calls some people to change the course of history, to do things that will be talked about for generations. That’s all good, of course, but most of the time the greatest thing you can do is be faithful. Think about it this way: what if every evening you wrote down on a piece of paper, “The greatest thing I did today is…”, what would you see at the end of a month? Probably a lot of small things, some of them nothing more than a kind word or a smile.
“That’s pretty cool when you put it that way.”
“Yeah, think about it. A smile could save a life. I have a friend who was out for a walk one evening with his daughter. There was a lady working in her yard and the daughter, who was only six went over and talked to the lady. No big deal, right? A week later the lady stops to see my friend and says that she was so depressed she was going to commit suicide, but his daughter’s kindness gave her a little ray of hope, and she reconsidered. They were able to help her as a family and now she’s doing okay. True story.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, a lot of wow’s you may never even know about. That’s why we need to stay faithful.”
“When do you get the idea that this is the thing God wants you to do?”
“You going to play?”
“Three,” Joe said as he placed a card.
“Eight.”
“Fifteen for two.”
“Twenty five.
“Go.”
“Twenty nine,” Polycarp said as he moved his peg. “Your question isn’t that hard if you do what I said and remain faithful. What I mean is, you make it your priority every day to serve the Lord and pretty soon you’ll find what you’re good at and what you enjoy. Sort of like your spiritual gifts.”
“Spiritual gifts? This is the first I’ve heard that term.”
“A spiritual gift is something God gives you to serve him. It’s like a skill.”
“How do you know what your gifts are?”
“Well, the Bible talks about them in several places. Like I said, keep faithful, but here,” Polycarp wrote some references down on a note pad and gave them to Joe. “Read these when you get a chance. And ask around. Other people will see your spiritual gifts usually before you do.”
“Okay, I will. Eight.”
“Eleven.
“Eighteen, and last card.” Joe laid down his hand. “Okay, I’ve got fifteen two, fifteen four, a pair for six and a pair for eight.”
“I’ve got fifteen two, and a double run for ten. I’m out.”
“Way to go, man.”
“’Bout time, Joe. You won the last three games. I was beginning to think I’d lost my edge.”
“Three games? You lost your edge over three games? What about the ten before that?”
“You won a couple of those.”
“No, no. You are the Cribbage master. I bow before your magnificence.”
“Now we’re talkin’!” Polycarp was silent for a moment, and then he said, “So, Joe, I hear through the grapevine you and Felicitas are going out for dinner.”
“That’s the plan, yes.”
“Can I say something?”
“Sure. Anything.”
“You know about her past, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, maybe you figured this out, I don’t know, but you’re her first-no that’s not right, uh, this is the first date she’s had since she quit turning tricks.”
“Really?”
“And that’s not all. You know she ran away when she was really young, and this is her first real date. Ever. I know she’s known a lot of men, but not like this. Not in a normal way, and certainly not with a godly man.”
“So…?”
“So, you’re the man, dude. This is a big deal to her. Huge. Don’t blow it.”
“Help me, Pol. I mean I’ve had female relationships before, but this is a lot of pressure. I don’t know the rules now that I’m a follower of The Way.”
“You’re going to be fine, man. When I said ‘don’t blow it’ I just meant don’t expect too much. And by all means don’t come on to her. Just relax and be yourself. Have a good time and leave the rest to God.”
“I can do that.”
“Your deal, man.”
“I can do that too.”
Questions:
1. What is important about the people Joe met during lunch at the Refuge?
2. What is it about sitting down to eat with other believers that is so valuable to the Christian walk?
3. Sam’s observation (quoted by Felicitas) “that each person in the world is the center of an ever-expanding circle of influence that transcends time and space,” is basically the theme of The Mountain. How is this true for us? For you?
4. What does the man who confronted Joe at the bus stop represent?
5. What did Joe mean by “It’s like you’re saying ‘There is no God, and I hate him.’”?
6. What did Polycarp mean by “the great thing may not be a great thing.”?
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