Seriously, with the crisis in Afghanistan, the hurricane Ida floods, and shootings in the streets, I have been blown-away by all the bad news. So, I began purposefully looking for a shot of encouragement—something big.
Turns out, a man named Eliot Middleton filled the bill. In a small fishing town in South Carolina, the former mechanic decided to start his own restaurant, cooking ribs in a sauce recipe handed down from his great-great-grandmother in 1892. Anyway, a few years ago, this big-hearted guy organized a food drive during tough economic times. As expected, cars lined up around the restaurant to get free food. But after all the food was gone, there was still a line, just, not of cars.
There was a line of people, some of whom had walked hours to get a plate of hot food. That disturbed Middleton and got him thinking. So he let the community know he was looking for junk cars and sometimes traded slabs of ribs for broken-down vehicles. They began to trickle in and as he worked through the nights, his dream was born. He began to track down those people who had lost their cars when they lost their jobs, or people whose cars were too old to fix, or people who needed to get kids to school or the doctor, but had no way to pay for transportation. He'd find them and just knock on the door and hand them the keys. No cost, no strings, just "have a nice day."
Anyone who knows anything about restaurant work knows about long hours and slim margins. Yet this man does it all and then goes home and works on cars for strangers, paying for the repair parts out of his own pocket. What kind of great is that? Romans 12:21 says "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Love is good, and there's a lot of it in this world if you're willing to look around, and maybe jump in yourself.
I know you do,
Nancy
