Lessons From Jeremy: Part 1

Jeremy told me I looked pretty Monday afternoon. I had just come from my tennis class and looked a sight, but I thanked him for his sweet words anyway. I know he didn’t remember me, but we’d met many times before. I met Jeremy about four years ago, while taking classes at the McKinney campus of Collin College. I hadn’t been back on that campus in at least two years, so some time had passed since last we saw each other. I smiled at him as I went to change out of my tennis clothes and into something presentable to the general public.

I didn’t see him when I came back out, which honestly made me breathe a small sigh of relief. I made my way up to the second floor and curled up on a couch to read Pride and Prejudice. About an hour passed, and I stepped out of the world of Elizabeth Bennett long enough to realize I was hungry and wanted a snack. The vending machine on that floor was never all that good, so I went back downstairs to the intimidating row of glass machines offering anything and everything a junk food addict could want. This row was not for the faint of heart, and definitely not for the indecisive. As I qualify for the latter category, it took me a minute to decide what I wanted. I was making my selection when Jeremy ambled up to me. “You changed,” he said with a question in his voice. I told him I had, that gym shorts were not my favorite. He asked me how I liked tennis, and I told him that it was fun but that my skill is still sorely lacking. After a second of awkward silence, I said, “Jeremy, right?” I reached out for his hand and introduced myself, knowing that he didn’t remember the last time I had done this. With a huge smile, he gave me his hand in return and told me he was very glad to meet me. My car had been taken to the shop earlier that morning, so I’d been planning on returning to my couch to read some more until my ride came, but Jeremy asked me what I was doing so I told him I was going to one of the tables by the door and he followed me.

As we sat we talked about nothing in particular. Jeremy asked me if I worked and where; said he would have to come visit me at the restaurant, and told me he’d been working at Old Navy for the past seven years. He’d also recently started working at the hospital, which piqued my interest so I asked him what he did there. I nodded yes when he asked if I knew what prosthetics were, and he told me that he does physical therapy with patients who have new prosthetic appendages. When he found out that we both serve on the media teams at our churches, I could see the excitement in his face as he gave me a high-five and asked how long I had been saved. When it was his turn to talk again, he expressed his joy at being a Christian and knowing his purpose. He had discovered his purpose years ago, he said, one day while crying out to God. God had told him that his purpose was to talk to everyone he came across and try to encourage them. He said that he knew that God used him to impact the lives of people around him, and that even if he ever only impacted one person, he had done what God asked of him.

...To be continued...