posted by
J-Walking
|
1:59pm Wednesday February 7, 2007
I want to be like Mike.
For years that has meant being like this guy:
Now, I love that guy. No one who ever played the game was better.
But I don’t want to be like him. I want to be like Mike Oliver.
Mike is my 60-something neighbor. He looks like Santa Claus – pink cheeks, round nose, big white beard, a not insignificant belly, a great laugh. In fact, for most of December, he is Santa Claus around these parts. But that doesn’t begin to describe the guy who also is up distributing presents at 6am on Christmas morning at a homeless shelter, who wheels out our garbage cans when we forget (and walks around returning them back to our houses before we ever can), who gets up earlier than anyone else so he can take the delivered curbside newspapers and place them on the front stoops of the older neighbors, who volunteers for everything, and never asks for anything. Alexandria city recently named him citizen of the year.
Now Mike has his quirks – he is a packrack. To even peek inside his house – that is all anyone gets to do – is to see piles of newspapers and boxes and trinkets and such. His wife Linda patiently bears with it. He can also talk like no one I’ve ever met. Photos of him mouth shut are said to bring a great reward. But that is all I can come up with.
I really do want to be like Mike because I realize that to be like Mike is to be the kind of person that Jesus calls us to be – humble, serving, loving, generous, kind. Some years ago I wrote about Mother Teresa and said that she actually wasn’t an “extraordinary Christian” – that really, she was just an “ordinary Christian”. The problem was that most of the world has forgotten what it means to be an ordinary Christian. I think the same thing about Mike and truly hope that I can be like him.
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David Kuo has been walking with Jesus for more than 20 years, during which time he has served as special assistant to the president in George W. Bush’s White House, policy director for Sen. John Ashcroft, and speechwriter for a gaggle of conservatives (plus a few liberals here and there). He is the author of “Tempting Faith,” a book about God and politics, and is currently the Washington editor for Beliefnet.com. He is in love with his wife Kim and three other females named Laura, Rachel, and Olivia, conveniently also known as his daughters. He is a member of the Association of Professional Bass Fishermen.
David Kuo has been walking with Jesus for more than 20 years, during which time he has served as special assistant to the president in George W. Bush’s White House, policy director for Sen. John Ashcroft, and speechwriter for a gaggle of conservatives (plus a few liberals here and there). He is the author of “Tempting Faith,” a book about God and politics, and is currently the Washington editor for Beliefnet.com. He is in love with his wife Kim and three other females named Laura, Rachel, and Olivia, conveniently also known as his daughters. He is a member of the Association of Professional Bass Fishermen.
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posted February 8, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I’d like to be more like Mike . . . Proper name: Michael, The Archangel. Your story was inspiring David.
posted February 8, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Thanks Donny.