My New Friend Adam

One of the questions I’ve been asking myself for several months is “what is love and why is it so hard for others to share it?” Every day I wake up with the goal to love at least one person that day. But when I say that I’m talking about going out in this broken world and loving like Jesus. His love is different, it’s unconditional, and it applies to everyone.

During my last trip, I was in DC (again)! One might say it’s hard to share love in a city with thousands of people rushing around (honestly I think you have to be a runner to live there) from place to place. However, the people in the city are some of the nicest people out there! Since I first visited in 8th grade (like most 8th graders) I grow a new love for the city with every visit.

The other morning I started my day off by parking at the tidal basin with no plan in mind. Imagine that, I never plan my days tbh. When I parked a black car pulled up beside me and a man got out. I was a little skeptical at first but paid to park as I watched him take camp with his mat as he smoked a joint. I thought to myself “welp I may come back to an empty car but I’m going to enjoy my time in the city” and went about my way.

Two hours later I arrived back at my car. The man flashed his pearly whites at me and said “man you must have gone far! You’ve been gone a long time! You are the one that got out of your car this morning when I got here right?” That simple sentence was the start of a 30min random conversation!

Here I had jumped to conclusions about this man and now we were having one of the coolest random conversations! We talked about travel, jobs, how he ended up in DC and fishing. We connected on so many levels! Here I had just come back to grab some water before continuing my walk. Now I had a new friend named Adam!

Before I left I offered him a Gatorade out of my cooler because I noticed he brought nothing to drink with him. He kindly accepted and was beyond thankful! I continued on my walk. I returned an hour later, made a quick sandwich, and sat on the Potomac not far from him eating. During this time he went to leave but not without waving like crazy and yelling out his car window “GOODBYE!”

So why did God place Adam (who I will most likely never see again) in my life that morning? Honestly, I may never know but you know what? I noticed Adam and he noticed me. God taught me not to judge a book by its cover but to LOVE everyone! Adam works in the marijuana business and I work as a missionary, he loves to travel to National parks as do I. Two completely different people connecting in a city of so many. I may never see Adam again but that conversation and bottle of Gatorade may just be a seed that needed to be planted in his life that morning.

My favorite bible story is in acts 3:1-9. Peter and John come to the entrance of the beautiful gate. There at the gate, they noticed a cripple man who was begging for money. They said to him “look at us” the man expected money but Peter says to him instead, “I don’t have money, but I’ll give you this—by the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk” and suddenly he walked! The point in that story I want you to get is that Peter and John NOTICE HIM! They didn’t just walk past him or turn their heads they spoke to him. Now I don’t know all of Adam’s story but what I do know is he was a super nice guy and for some reason, God placed him on my path (literally) that morning. Most people would just walk right by the man based on his looks and because of what he was smoking. However, I noticed him for a reason and shared love through great conversations and a Gatorade.

It’s the simple things that show the greatest love! Kindness goes a long way. You just have to be willing to share it in the most random ways! I firmly believe that that’s one of the lessons God wanted to remind me of that morning. It doesn’t matter who the person is, what they are wearing, what job they work or how they live their life it is our job to go out and LOVE! To connect with others on their level just as Jesus would. If we turn our heads or crawl into the comfortable bubbles we like to sit in, who is going to love those people that are placed in our paths and share Jesus with them? And for that matter who would love each of us? So I challenge each of you to go out into this broken world today and LOVE LIKE HIM!