IT'S A LONG WALK FROM THE STREET - A journey with a guy called "Joe" - part 20

This past Friday I received one of the worst phone calls I could ever receive. Joe’s brother called to tell me that Joe’s doctor wants the family to come to the hospital for a meeting so that they can decide on Joe’s final care in the hospital. You see, since my last post, Joe’s condition plummeted. The medical condition that he has started rapidly decaying his body. The years of alcoholism not only damaged his organs but also veiled his declining health. He didn’t realize how sick he was until his body was alcohol free. He thought that the virus that he was diagnosed with as a young man was cured. He didn’t know that it never left his body. And without taking any medication for many years, it had done irreparable damage. Today, Joe is on life support with a deteriorating body, semi conscious and nearly unresponsive.

During my last visit with Joe, I told him how much I had learned from him. I told him how he taught me the value of perseverance; how he showed me the importance of family; how he taught me to be grateful for my health and to take care of myself. I told him that I had learned how huge the struggle was for homeless persons; how much bureaucracy there is in the human services system, but I had also learned the system and now I’m better equipped to help the next person. I told Joe that I had written his story and posted it on the web so that people could see it. I told him about the many responses from people who are being touched by his life and his struggle. I assured him that his life had meaning and purpose and that God was using him to help and bless others.

Joe demonstrated to me that you can share a laugh – no matter what you’re going through. His life demonstrated the miracle working power of God in that God delivered him from his homeless condition, delivered him from alcohol addiction, delivered him from nicotine addiction, reconciled him with his family, saved him, and put such a hunger for God in him that – rain or shine – every Sunday you would see him walk from his home to church. Working with Joe taught me how to love a person back to life. I am a better man because of him.

So, Joe’s brother asked if I would go with the family to meet with the doctor. Joe’s brother doesn’t want to see him suffer any longer – especially after having witnessed their father suffer with lung cancer that traveled to his brain. He doesn’t want to see his brother endure pain and agony if there is no real chance of recovery.

It would be easier for me to receive a call from a doctor to say that my loved one had passed than to be called in to make a decision to let my loved one pass.

Yet my God works miracles. Who knows what He will do as the next act in the life of Joe.