Important or nice? We choose nice!

As we begin a new year, I’m reminded of a phrase that Marcia used at one time or another with all of our kids:  It’s nice to be important, but it’s important to be nice!

This came to mind in the past week as I learned of the deaths of two old-timers, one whom I had met only once, and one who was a dear friend.

When I met Casey in the kitchen of a downtown Grand Rapids restaurant, he showed me a stack of lunch receipts…money still owed to him by homeless people from the Heartside area.  It made no difference if they didn’t have money; he wouldn’t let them go hungry.  They could pay him later.  He assured me that sooner or later, they would pay him.  And if they didn’t, he just considered it a gift from him to that poor individual.  Casey won’t go down as one of the important restaurateurs in Grand Rapids, but it was important to him to be nice!

Doug was a diamond in the rough!  He wasn’t sure he could worship in our church because he didn’t have fancy clothes.  Upon being assured that he would be accepted, he first visited, then became a regular attender, and eventually made a public profession of his faith.  I played the organ for his funeral service just a few days ago.  He may not go down in history as perhaps the seemingly most important person to have worshiped at Ferrysburg Community Church, but he’ll certainly be remembered as one of the nicest!

And that leads me to HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS.  Among all the prison ministries at work right here in the State of Michigan, HFP will not be seen by many as the most important.  There are highly successful programs with large budgets and huge lists of supporters and donors.   I’m not knocking them.  We thank God for each of these programs!  Any project that touches the lives of prisoners ranks high on our popularity list. 

No, we may not seem important, but I can assure you that we are nice.  The many beautiful holiday notes and messages that came to us on home-made greeting cards, scribbled notes, and herky-jerky misspelled words of thanks via email, were so amazingly affirming!  When we extend the cup of cold water to a hurting prisoner, even though it may be only slightly cool or only half-full, we do it in the name of Jesus because he commanded that we be “nice.” Through that simple effort lives are touched, and unnamed individuals who heretofore had only a number, are no longer statistics…they are real people who now have a real friend.

And so we press on in the new year, not at all sure how we’ll find the necessary funds to survive, but still living and operating by Marcia’s words.  It certainly could be nice to be important, but for the entire gang at HFP, it’s important to be nice!

Thanks to all who will be at our side in 2015.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Half-a-race!

The HFP Drag-Racing Fund-Raiser had the potential of being extremely successful, and could have raised several thousand dollars. Let's just say it was partly successful. For background purposes I'll explain that I was racing a 1963 supercharged Studebaker Lark that has a reputation of being one of the fastest stock Studebakers in drag racing today. The engine was built by one of the finest Studebaker engine mechanics in the country, and the car many times has achieved quarter-mile runs in less than 14 seconds! We promised to make at least ten passes in the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags at Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Michigan, this past weekend, and we asked for pledges ONLY ON THOSE RUNS REACHED IN LESS THAN 14 SECONDS. On Friday, here's how we fared: Run #1 13.936 @ 101.24 mph Run #2 14.027 @ 101.30 mph Run #3 14.091 @ 100.88 mph Run #4 13.805 @ 102.84 mph Run #5 14.058 @ 101.26 mph By the 5th run we discovered that ...
Read more

Gregory John McCormick: 1964-2008

Itchy is dead. The lifeless body of this talented rock musician, whose band Shock Therapy was a popular group especially in Europe, was found in a field in Detroit last Wednesday, November 5. The Wayne County Coroner's office informed father Glenn McCormick that the body of his son Gregory, better known to all of us as Itchy, bore no signs of trauma. Glenn said that Itchy, who had been living at his father's dental lab in Detroit, had been drinking to excess for some time. While the toxicology report has not been released yet, the general consensus seems to be that he drank himself to death. Our agency, while still named INNOCENT, first got involved with Itchy in 2005. The Detroit native, who called Germany his home, got involved in some unfortunate activity that placed him in the Michigan State prison system on a charge of arson of a dwelling. It was really just a bonfire in an alley, but an alleged parole violation placed him in prison for 1-20 years. I personally sat w...
Read more

Three lives, connected by a divine thread

My kids say it should be a book! The Doug, Pat and Mark story is a doozie!   About 25 years ago, while fighting to free Maurice Carter from prison, I read a newspaper column written by Pat Shellenbarger of the Grand Rapids Press on the topic of eyewitness identification. I contacted Pat re that story. That led to a friendship between Doug and Pat that continues to this day.   In subsequent months, Pat would go on to assist me in an investigation into the Maurice Carter case that eventually led to solving the crime.  That particular episode became a chapter in my book about the Carter case, SWEET FREEDOM, published in 2006.   Fast forward to 2009, A New York businessman claims wrongful conviction, and while serving time in a Michigan prison is handed a copy of my book. Mark Hartman, who was also convicted in Berrien County, was amazed at the similarity of these two stories and tried to reach out to me. His letters bounced.   Persisting in his efforts to c...
Read more