Christian Living

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A TRUTH Story
By PJ Hasty


Jack was born into wealth and never really wanted for anything; however he was taught from an early age what hard work was all about and that honesty was always the best policy. He had security in his family and beyond, and most of all he was loved and he loved others. Although he had everything he could ever want, he knew he was going to have to leave his parent’s home to truly get fulfilled. On the other end of the spectrum was a young girl, Cindy, who had nothing. No home, no family, no money, no food, no education, nothing! She hung out behind restaurants with the rats looking for scraps of food. She slept in empty dumpsters when it rained or snowed and on the park grass on the nicer nights. She was always tired and no one ever talked to her because she smelled and looked really scary. Sam was a successful, rich executive at a local business. He always smelled good and always looked nice and pressed. Sam had a huge house right outside the city, with a maid and a driver. He never went without -- except for love and companionship. Although he had everything money could buy, he felt empty and lonely, and tried to immerse himself in work, exercise, fine dining, and fine women. And then there is Melissa, but we will get to her a little later.
Cindy lived in an abusive home from the day her addicted mother gave birth to her. Her father left before she was born, and her mother blamed her for that. Cindy was five years old with bruises, open and infected wounds, and a broken -- and uncared for -- arm when the state took her away from her mother. Her mother, refreshed and feeling free, ended up dying of an overdose. Cindy was now a ward of the state and had no hopes of being adopted -- even fostered -- with all her delays and physical needs. She was schooled with all the special needs kids and never pushed to do anything that she didn’t want to. She never learned to read or write her name. She stayed in an orphanage until her eighteenth birthday when she was kicked out and left alone. She was truly alone with nothing at all.
After a few months of being on the road, Cindy learned valuable lessons. She learned to find the freshest food in the garbage cans behind restaurants and delis. She learned that she could trust no one and to never look anyone in the eye. She learned that when it rains or snows it is safer inside than out, and the dumpsters are the best place to be. She also started to gather up things to make herself feel better. She had a backpack filled with things found all over town. She also had a savings account made up of spare change from the streets -- 3 dollars and 31 cents. Cindy was truly down and out; she knew it and everyone around her knew it. One night she fell asleep and hoped it would be the last time, but little did she know that there was hope, true hope, that began when she was five years old.
Jack was an educated man and majored in entrepreneurial studies. After he got his master’s degree, he had said goodbye to his parents, his security, and his love. It had been about 15 years since Jack had taken all of his trust fund money and built a shelter for those in need. He sank every dime he had into building it and when he was done it was a beautiful 7,000 square foot building with beds, a kitchen, a living room, a place for kids to play, and 10 bathrooms. The town’s citizens were in an uproar. They didn’t want wayward people living there, with drug addicts and thieves. Jack was quiet and knew his plan and kept on working. People from all over came to this shelter; some stayed, many left. The appeal was shelter and food. Some people were so tired and hungry they walked hundreds of miles to go there.
Jack stood outside the door to talk to people. He guaranteed their needs would be met and that they would finally have a sense of security, wealth and love. He helped people up the stairs if they were too tired to climb the four steps. Sometimes, Jack would go and pick a person up from where they were and bring them to the shelter. Unfortunately, only some – few -- stayed and crossed the threshold of a new beginning. Most turned back before even opening the front door after they read the note that was posted there. The note read:
Come in and find rest. Eat to fill your hunger. Share with each other to find love and security. Work to feel a sense of accomplishment. We will all be accountable to one another and we will all do the chores we need to keep this home functioning. Join our family and become a productive member of our society. Leave all your bags and personal possessions at the door; everything you need will be provided. All are welcome!

Jack was a generous man, but wanted people to understand before even coming in that this was not going to be a free ride. Of course the people who needed the extra care and mending got it, but they were required to contribute as soon as they were able. The people who were there the longest always helped the new people settle in. The first step was the bathroom. The first shower was always the best; it cleansed their bodies and renewed their spirits. Getting dressed in new clothes, things that were clean, shirts that didn’t smell, pants that actually fit and shoes that felt so good was a renewing and wonderful experience. The old clothes were burned because they represented a time of their lives that they wanted to forget and not be reminded of; besides, Jack didn’t have the extra room and didn’t want people to be saddened by bad memories. The second step led to a bed and a place to rest. Each space had a bed, a dresser, and a plush armchair. The dresser was filled with clothes upon their arrival and the sheets were fresh. The chair was a place of reflection and quiet time.
After a good sleep of 12 to 24 hours, people woke up with a sense of refreshment and were ready to face the next task. Everyone had a job to do to keep the shelter running, based on their skills and desires. Some people had to be persuaded to do things, because they thought it was beyond their expertise, but it always turned out they were doing exactly what they were best at. Some of the chores included: cooking, cleaning, log splitting for woodstoves, changing beds, washing or mending clothes – all of these were needed. Those who had more experience did the outside chores.
Sam, the powerful business man, heard about this shelter and wanted to explore it. He obviously didn’t need what it provided, but he wanted to check it out -- maybe become an investor as a tax shelter. When he went to the shelter, Jack, as always, was standing on the front porch. Sam approached Jack thinking that surely – as the man with the “resources” – Sam was the dominant figure in the relationship. Jack met him before he even got to the first step. Immediately Jack reached out his hand and Sam shook it vigorously. Sam asked if he could go in and check out the dwelling to see if it was something he would like to invest in. Jack explained that there was no need for investors and this was not a place where people could just come in and walk around and leave.
Jack explained further, “This is a home where people feel safe; they can be themselves and not worry about their shortcomings. People that live here work here. It is a lavish home filled with everything people need, but it is not open to snoop around. This home comes with a commitment and a desire to live and work and use special gifts and talents to make the home thrive.”
Sam was floored. This guy was turning down money; who would do that?
Back at the office Sam found the shelter’s website, www.atruthstory.com, and read about Jack’s affluent beginnings, his sacrifices, and his desire to help others. He also read that the shelter was a place to feel safe, wealthy, and loved. Sam was in awe of this man’s generosity, and most of all, the tax benefits of a nonprofit organization. Sam thought that maybe he could start something like this. Again, he had his driver take him to the shelter. Jack met him halfway up the walk again and greeted him kindly. Sam tried to pick his brain about starting up a tax write-off – I mean, a place to help people. Jack explained that this was a lifetime commitment – a sacrifice of your personal possessions. It was a true joy for Jack to give hope to the hopeless, food to the hungry, and rest to the weary.
Sam stopped him there and asked him, “Come on, really, between you and me: how much do you make a year from contributors, churches, and state funds?”
Jack looked him square in the eye and said, “Nothing. We don’t get contributions, because no one wants us around, and no one wants to invest or give money to something they don’t understand. Everything we have we work for, nothing more and nothing less.”
Again, Sam was floored. He left in a daze and wondered who this Jack could be. Who does this?
That night Sam went to bed with a burden in his heart. He felt so empty. He felt so alone. He felt so poor -- which he could not understand. Months went by and he still could not shake the feeling that there was something beyond the front door of that shelter that he wanted, but what was it? He had everything and then some. He filled his time with more work, more exercise, and more women, but every night he went to bed sad and alone.
One night, fighting insomnia, Sam was out driving around when he saw Cindy huddled on the side of the park bench. It was chilly, but not too bad. Sam looked at her and thought, now here is a girl that would benefit from the shelter. He drove up to her, rolled his window down, and yelled the address to her. He told her she would get a warm meal and a warm bed. She picked her head up, but put it down again. Sam drove off thinking he did a good deed, and was proud of himself.
As he lay in bed that night, Sam thought about Cindy. He felt it was her fault – not his—that she hadn’t gone to the shelter. He had given her the information, right? He was certain that was where his responsibility ended. He tossed and turned but never went to sleep. He kept seeing Cindy putting her head back into her arms. Weeks passed and his dreams were still the same. Finally, Sam went back to the shelter and told Jack about the girl he had seen in the park. Jack knew who he was talking about. She had been there before but turned back and walked away. Sam told Jack how he couldn’t sleep and begged Jack to go pick the girl up since she needed help. Jack agreed and Sam left. Sam slept that night, only to have a nightmare that consisted of loneliness, loss of everything, and a life with no hope.
Jack did as he promised and went to where Cindy hung out. She stayed away in fear of scaring Jack, so he waited there for about 3 hours. Finally, he went over to her and asked her to follow him to a place where there is peace and love.
She explained, stuttering through her words, “I-I-I’ve been there. I followed some people th-th-there a long time ago. They went to the d-d-door, stood there and left, so I left too. Th-th-they said it was too much like w-w-work.”
“Well what do you think?” Jack asked.
“I-I-I really don’t, I just followed the c-c-crowd.”
Jack wrapped his arms around her and told her there was a new crowd she should be following. He brought her back to the shelter and read the sign to her.
Come in and find rest. Eat to fill your hunger. Share with each other to find love and security. Work to feel a sense of accomplishment. We will all be accountable to one another and we will all do the chores we need to keep this home functioning. Join our family and become a productive member of our society. Leave all your bags and personal possessions at the door; everything you need will be provided. All are welcome!

“Do you think that you can handle this?” Jack asked.
Cindy smiled and said, “H-h-here’s my bag. I can do anything, but I can’t r-r-read, so can someone help me with that?”
Jack smiled and carried her tiny, and so-tired body over the threshold of a new beginning in life.
That first shower took her all the way back to when she was five, stripping the sorrows and pain away and giving her a new hope for life and for her future. For the first time in her life Cindy smiled as she got dressed in new clothes. She slept for about three days and awoke with a renewed spirit, a feeling of security, a sense of wealth beyond measure, and people who loved her. She started intense tutoring and learned to read. She became the head chef in the kitchen where she tries new recipes every week.
Sam was sleeping better at night now. He had started taking sleep aids to kill the voices in his head that kept chanting that he was alone and not as rich as he thought he was. One afternoon on his day off work, Sam returned to the shelter to ask Jack about the girl from the park. Jack assured him that she was safe and doing well. Just then, a girl ran from the house carrying a torn backpack and with tears running down her face. Jack excused himself and ran after her, calling “Melissa, please don’t leave!”
Melissa had grown up at the shelter. Her mother brought her there as a baby. Now a young woman, Melissa was grieving. Her mother had succumbed to cancer – an outcome Melissa could not accept. She had never known her father, although she heard stories that he was an affluent executive. Now she intended to find him. If the love, wealth, and security she found at the shelter wasn’t enough to stop her mother from dying, then she was on a mission to find something else. Jack tried to explain that her needs could never be met from a man who doesn’t even know her. Melissa, determined, stormed away in anger.
Melissa searched and searched for a life she thought would fulfill her emptiness. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. She lived on the streets, catching brief bits of sleep in dark alleys, eating what she could find thrown in the nearest dumpster. Eight months later she was no closer to this fulfilling lifestyle. Finally beginning to realize what she had left behind, Melissa sobbed in her choice to leave behind the only home she had ever known.
Sam -- on the other hand – was in a fine, comfortable bed. And yet, he again found himself fighting insomnia. Thinking that a late-night drive might ease his frustration, he once again turned the key in his luxury sedan. As he wound through the streets of the city, he was surprised to see a woman in almost the same location where he found Cindy so many months before. It was Déjà vu. Was somebody was trying to tell him something? He stopped, as before, and yelled the address of the shelter from the window of his car. Melissa lifted her head and ran to him, reaching the car just before Sam could put it in drive and pull away. She seemed familiar to him, but he was still shocked when she said that she had actually lived at the shelter before leaving to find her father. As she mentioned her mother’s name, his breath caught in his throat with the realization that about twenty years before he’d had a brief relationship with that same woman.
Choking back tears, Sam unlocked his doors and asked Melissa if she would come with him to have a cup of coffee and maybe a bite to eat. Hungry and cold, she jumped in the car. They talked for three hours. By the time the dishes were cleared and the tip laid on the table of the all-night diner, it was clear to both of them that Sam was Melissa’s biological father. Thrilled she had found him, Melissa assumed that Sam would simply take her home to his place. Sam tried to explain that he had no room in his life for someone else -- that he was very busy and didn’t know how to share his life with anyone. It was early in the morning as Melissa realized Sam had driven her back to the shelter. Melissa began to cry and wondered aloud why he didn’t seem to want her.
Sam said very softly, “Here they have so much more than I can ever give you. I have nothing to offer except money. I have no love, and don’t know how to find it. Please, you are much better off here; that is the one thing I do know. You’ve had a taste of the world around you. Don’t you want the life you had at Jack’s place instead? I wish they had room for people like me.”
A smile began to replace Melissa’s tears. “Dad, they do have room for you. The people who live there are not only poor, homeless, or shattered; there are rich, empty, and sad people here, too. It’s just that they, too, have to leave their old lives selves – including their riches – behind.”
Melissa quietly opened the door of Sam’s sedan, leaving him alone once again with his thoughts. Why did his life keep intersecting with this shelter? What was Sam supposed to give here, if not his money?
Ten months later, after a huge estate sale and a letter of resignation, Sam walked up the long driveway to the Truth Building, as it was later named. Leaving his wallet and cell phone on the front porch, Sam walked through the open door and into the hearts of EVERYONE in the shelter – many who had prayed that Sam would find his way. Sam’s life savings, which he immediately donated to the shelter, went on to triple the size of the shelter and the number of people who found hope…in the TRUTH.
Work is never done, and there is always more to do, but coming into the Truth is so worth it. Yes, sacrifices have to be made, but the payoff in support by peers, the security in the future, the love of the founder of Truth, and wealth beyond measure is the motivation. It is not an easy ride, and people may want to leave to find a better life, but truly there is no better life than living in the Truth.
Come in and find rest. Eat to fill your hunger. Share with each other to find love and security. Work to feel a sense of accomplishment. We will all be accountable to one another and we will all do the chores we need to keep this home functioning. Join our family and become a productive member of our society. Leave all your bags and personal possessions at the door; everything you need will be provided. All are welcome!











The Spiritual Connection
(And explanation)

Jesus left His comfortable home in Heaven to come to earth to give us hope, shelter from the world, and a place to run to. He has given us the Bible as our shelter. Jesus wishes he could help everyone, but he can only help those who ask. He will pick us up and carry us home if we just cry out to Him. He loves us so much, He sacrificed everything. He is never sleeping and will greet you at the door. However, in the family of God we all have our work cut out for us; it is not going to be a cakewalk, but it is be the best journey of our lives. The choice is up to you. Go to Jesus or stay where you are? Find true joy or look for the quick fix? All you have to do is ask Him to take your broken life and mend it. Will you surrender yourself to the loving and caring Lord? Even if you have accepted Christ as your personal Savior, take this time to think of how you are benefiting the Body of Christ. Are you working in the kitchen or in the sewing room – is that where God intends you to be?
Before Jesus left the earth he gave us a glimpse of Heaven. In John 14: 1 – 3 Jesus comforts His disciples by saying,
1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.
And in Revelation 7:16, we are told,
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
The Lord wants us to come to Him and leave all our “baggage” behind. He wants to be our refuge and shelter. He wants to fulfill our every need. He wants to be the one to help us when we are too weary to take one more step. He is only one prayer away and is willing to accept you if you are willing to accept Him. All you have to do is surrender yourself to the Lord. He will meet you half way and bring you to live in His TRUTH.

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