Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday October 31, 2007

When I heard a wee bit about Joe Cooper and then met him face to face an image of the Wild Man of Gadara leaped into my mind and several comparisons were immediately evident.

Suzanne Smith has done a marvelous job over an 11 year period since Joe first walked into the Marion County/Indianapolis Library after spending another night on the street, cold, hungry and forsaken, and asked, "Would you teach me to read?"

A thumbnail of Joe's story is told in the new book Indiana Author’s 2007 with the theme, Inspiration From The Heartland, published by New Century Publishing. You will search far and wide to find a more moving story of a man, diagnosed as a dumb child, schizophrenic, dyslexic and often, un-trainable. On top of this add juvenile delinquent, ex-con, alcoholic and drug addict. At the age of 38 Joe began his climb literally out of a dumpster.

I have noticed that people who are lifted up the farthest by the Lord tend to see a little humor in the brutality of their former life. Joe says, "I was a black, Southern, poor, illiterate boy who grew up to be a black, Southern, poor illiterate man. I spent 38 years in this condition, a life of degradation, prejudice, abuse, alcoholism, drugs, humiliation, halfway houses. You name it I lived the nightmare."

As a child Joe was not smart as were his brother and sisters, Joe was born with the above mentioned problems which were further compounded by his alcoholic father, a cotton picker in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The entire family lived in a two room shack, with no electricity or running water, unless you ran to the pump or spring to get it. At meal times Joe would crouch in the corner of the tiny house, knots of fear drawing him double with pain as he waited for the summons to stand before his father to do the homework before he could eat a meager supper. Joe saw many letters in the alphabet upside down or in reverse, he could not make out the letters of his name. When he failed in the ABC test, which was 100% of the time, he would be beaten with whatever was at hand, please do not substitute "spanking" as there is no similarity, and sent to what passed for a bed with the taunting, "Too lazy to learn, too lazy to eat." If you think this is exaggeration, wait until you read the book.

To say that society had determined that Joe was hopeless is a given. Churches by and large had written the same forlorn statement. Against this mind set, Charles Allen stated, "When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God." I often wonder when we people of faith will stop doing this.

When Joe asked for someone to teach him to read, the Lord heard the question and here is where Sue enters. For the last 11 years Sue has risen to the occasion and worked with Joe, through 12 trips to the BMV to get his license, his marriage to Melody, a sweet girl and Joe's rising through the ranks at the Marion County Library, from janitor to now Joe is over the entire Printing Department, Second Hand Prose Book Sales and is part of Human Resources for all Marion County Libraries.

When the Wild Man of Gadara met Jesus the demons were cast out and in a few short minutes he was clothed, in his right mind, sitting at the feat of Jesus. Joe has taken a little longer, but this is the way the Lord primarily works today. He uses the mind, heart and hands of men and women willing to set aside some of what they are doing and to thoughtfully care for and help a struggling human along the way. Joe's journey has taken him from a shack outside Murfreesboro, to a dumpster in Indy, to place of respect and service, including his membership in the Eastern Star Baptist Church, and through Christ to the city celestial. Do you have any time to thoughtfully care for and help your brother over by the dumpster?

You never know.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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