FAIR's Rising Generation

A couple of weeks ago I met a vendor at the mall, named Nathaniel. He was a black man dressed in business casual and his composure suggested he had all of the secrets of life stored up in his forehead. When he looked at me it was an instant transference of confidence; confidence in him, confidence in myself, and confidence in the message he had to share with me. Now I’ll continue with my story where I left off last week, and in case you missed it here’s the link that will take you to it: Missionary Moment @ Eastern Oils.

“Woohoo! Darth Vader has found religion!” I cheered to Nathaniel, fully understanding the metaphore he had presented to me. He was comparing himself to Star Wars’ youngest protagonist Anakin Skywalker. Anakin grew up as a slave, won a race for his freedom and started training in the supernatural religion of the “Jedi.” However, before Anakin could complete his training, he was decieved by a wicked Dark Lord. Anakin followed the Dark Lord and became caught up in the snares of power–before he knew it he had become “Darth Vader,” the right hand of evil.

I talked with Nathaniel for some length about his life and also about mine, sharing life’s experiences and lessons learned. The man never claimed to have been a saint and though he didn’t volunteer most of the thing I learned about him, he did share the things he thought I could benefit from. He told me how he had grown up in Miami and his father was a preacher there. He then recounted a tale I’ve heard all too often: his father was incredibly strict and Nathaniel didn’t want to be looked at as Daddy’s lil boy so he rebelled and did a lot of things he now regrets. The turning point in his life was after he got sent to County Jail for fighting a man who threatened his brother-in-law. He told me, “If there’s anything I learned as a kid, it’s that you’ve got to be loyal to the people you grow up with. You look out for them and they look out for you; if you haven’t got that growin up in the big city then you ain’t gonna survive.” He did time for his crime and came out looking for a change, so he packed his bags and headed for San Antonio where he could make a new life for himself and his family. When he got here he started looking for a religion to give his life some structure. It seems he was successful since here he was telling me his story and working for a religiously owned business.

At some point during our discussion, I told my new friend that in a year I’d be going on a mission; he chuckled and asked, “What, you mean like a secret mission or somethin’?” I laughed too and then I said quite seriously, “No, I mean like where you go and teach people in some other part of the world about Jesus Christ and his atonement for our sins.”

Nathaniel paused and looked at me for a moment in silence. His eyes shone with respect as he asked, “What religion are you?”

I easily declared, “I’m a Mormon. You know, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Nathaniel looked toward the wall as he said, “I’ve met Mormon missionaries before.” He lifted up his hand which still grasped the Holy Bible, “They gave me this book.” He smiled at me and said, “They were real nice guys. I wish I could get another one of these from them. This ones really worn and though I’ve gotten lots of Bibles before, none of ‘em feel like this one does.”

To me this was the golden experience, I was finally getting to share the best part of my life with someone else and I just knew that this man needed what I had. I wanted to shout at the man, “DUDE! You can!!” but I’m out of time to write so you’re going to have to come back in a couple of days to find out the rest of the story.

Thank you for reading! I hope you will come back and read the rest later. Please, comment on my post if you like it and so that I know that you have read it.

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