Joe

Last night I went out with some friends to enjoy the general merriment of a Saturday evening, and to lick our wounds from the various football loses we suffered throughout the day (SO close Nebraska...as for my own dear Trojans, I have seen some better days although it was super fun to have field passes for the first time!) Needless to say, we managed to have a great time and were on our way home at a respectable hour when we came across a guy I'll call "Joe". Joe was walking down the sidewalk around the corner, and when I say walking I am using the term loosely. Suffice it to say he had had a LOT to drink and was swaying alarmingly. We watched as he barely made it a few steps. My heart went out to him--he was younger than I was, dressed nicely (and we were in a nice neighborhood outside of a rather upscale bar) and all alone. I wanted to help him (and make sure he didn't get behind the wheel), but of course being a girl, late at night, etc etc didn't know exactly what to do. Thankfully I was with three dapper gents (lucky me, I know!) who all simultaneously decided they would step in and help. Long story short, as we sat with Joe for about 15 minutes before we found his friends to take him home, he told us (between heart-wrenching, drunken sobs) a really sad and probably true story from his recent past that left him certain at age 22 that "no one cared about him, or would ever love him" and that he would always be "the second choice" left on the outside looking in, all alone and without love. Friends, my heart broke for him. It still does. As people walked past us, some simply looking through us, others laughing and making judgemental comments, all I could think about was who hasn't been here before? Maybe not drunk on the sidewalk, or in his exact situation, but don't we all at some point or another question whether or not we are alone, or will ever be truly loved and accepted? I know that by the age of 22 I had already dealt harshly with these questions, and thankfully emerged on the side of hope, and even certainty that I was not only loved, but created by love, and saved by love. As I go about my day today, I will think of Joe and pray that he find the answers and hope he is in search of.