A few weeks ago God did some spiritual realignment on me. This is John. As long as I can remember John has been on the streets of Hollywood. I literally lived on the Blvd in 95 and I knew him then. I moved from Hollywood in 03 and he was always there. Always! Usually on the north side between Cherokee and Cahuenga! This a little off topic but most Los Angeles street names double as great cartoon sound effects. “C-A-H-Y-E-N-G-A”

There are two stories here and the experience I had this past visit walking down the “Blvd of Broken Dreams” makes a third.

1st, either no one has helped John get off the streets or John has refused the help. It is very sad that many people living on the streets get complacent. They are so comfortable with their existence, or so scared of change, they stay where they are. It is also very sad that there are very few government agencies, programs or even churches that offer any REAL help!

The story that I like to tell about John is on the subject of vision and purpose. John is severely handicapped and cannot walk. He lives on the streets yet I have never witnessed John in a bad mood. Most people in his situation have given up. John on the other hand, every single day, crawls, yes crawls down Hollywood Blvd and cleans the brass part of the “Walk of Fame” stars embedded in the sidewalk. What is also very cool it is a selfless vision that gives him purpose! I could be wrong, but I don’t believe John gets anything in return by cleaning the sidewalk. In fact, most store owners do not want him sitting in front of their store making it more then a challenge.

John has never once asked me for money. I have never seen him ask anyone for money. He has on occasion asked me for brass cleaner. Of course these days when I see him my heart breaks and I empty my wallet.

Too me, I like to think about how John keeps going day after day even though life has been extremely hard on him. His life is very hard yet because he keeps a vision in his heart it gives him purpose and somehow life gets a little easier.

The third story here is it has been longer then four years since I walked down Hollywood Blvd. I have a lot of extremely good and extremely horrible memories of the Blvd. When I moved to LA in 87 it was a wild and crazy circus filed with adventure. Heck, it is kind of like a carnival sideshow in some ways. It was fun for many many years! I also spent several very dark Christmas Eves on the Blvd. One I was even living on the streets.

The point I am trying to make is I am so very grateful for all that God has done in my life. I got so caught up in my world that I forgot about His divine purpose for all of us. God used this last walk down the Blvd to realign my spirit to withstand the hurricanes of life. I made a promise that I will, as often as I can, go walk down that Blvd just to remember God’s awesome power.

Where has God brought you from? Have you forgot, like I did, about what it was like to live without God? Maybe take a visit to where you once were to get realigned to where He wants to take you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Homeless, Just Me, Life's Lessons, Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.