The Man In The Bus Station

Hebrews 13:2

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

It is a little known fact that one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s most prized possessions was a book entitled Jesus and the Disinherited.  The book traveled almost everywhere Dr. King did, and was among the items found in his hotel room the night he was assassinated.  The book was written by Dr. Howard Thurman, a towering figure in African American religious history, and perhaps the person most responsible for laying the groundwork for Dr. King's strategy of nonviolent resistance.  Dr. Thurman traveled to India during the 1930s to meet with Mahatma Gandhi to learn about the movement he inspired and led to free the Indian subcontinent from British colonialism. Thurman returned with the idea that the tactics employed in the Indian struggle could be utilized by African Americans. He wrote Jesus and the Disinherited as a result of that experience, and the book is a manual for understanding how to be a Christian and fight for social justice. Notice the progression here: Gandhi inspires Thurman; Thurman inspires King, and King inspires a movement, a nation, and ultimately the world.  

Question: if Dr. King inspired us, and Dr. Thurman inspired Dr. King, who inspired Dr. Thurman?

The answer? A man in a bus station!  In his autobiography With Head And Heart, Dr. Thurman writes that on his way to college, he ran out of money.  As he sat brokenhearted in the bus station, a man walked up to him and asked what was wrong.  After sharing his plight, the man bought him a ticket to his destination and then left without waiting for a thank you or sharing his name.  Dr. Thurman never forgot this act of kindness, and many years later when he wrote his autobiography, he dedicated it to “the man who met him in the bus station.” If it weren’t for that man, Dr. Thurman may have never made it to college. If it weren’t for that man, Dr. Thurman may have never traveled to India, met Gandhi, and learned about nonviolent resistance. If it weren’t for that man, Dr. Thurman may have never written Jesus And The Disinherited, which Dr. King could have never read. Imagine! All of that, from a simple act of kindness from a stranger in a bus station.

It is often the unsung, unnamed characters in our stories who seem to do the most to help us along our way. I have discovered that the people that you think will help you almost never do, and the people who you think can't or won't help you almost always do.   

Let me encourage you:  One day, you will be at a crossroads.  You will have exhausted your resources, and will be unsure of how to get to the next phase of your journey.  In the hour of your greatest need and perplexity, God will send a stranger to help you along the way. 

His vessels tend to hang out in strange places.  Like bus stations.