His name is Joe. As I listened to his story, I was blessed beyond belief. Speaking through Joe’s experience, the Holy Spirit touched my heart and taught me how precious each of us is in God’s eyes, no matter who or what we are.

Joe was born into a healthy, happy family with several siblings and both parents present. His father’s work provided a comfortable upbringing. Joe’s life was going just fine until his early teen years when he started hanging around an uncle five years his senior. That’s how he was introduced to marijuana.

Joe dove headlong into drug use, abuse, and eventually trafficking. Rejecting his middle class background, he relished his new identity as a “hustler.” Everyone knew him as “The Dope Man.” He dove headlong and never looked back!

A dozen years of hustling drugs eventually took its toll. At age 25, an assailant shot Joe in the back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The assailant was only 15 years old. You would think that being paralyzed would put an end to Joe’s hustling, right? No sooner was Joe released from the hospital than he went back to the streets to sell drugs. Only then, he did so from his wheelchair.

Needless to say, this presented some problems, and Joe was robbed several times. Joe’s mother was worried about him being out there in the streets, unable to adequately protect himself. So, even though she did not approve of the life her son was living, she allowed him to live with her, her husband, and the rest of Joe’s siblings. Joe continued to use and sell drugs from his mother’s home!

The ups and downs of drug addiction got worse. Coming down after a high left Joe depressed and discouraged. It was then that he felt especially sorry for himself, for being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. On one occasion, he decided to commit suicide by taking an overdose of a prescribed medication, and planned to burn down his house—family included! Joe’s plan was to leave a cigarette burning on the bed and allow the carbon dioxide from the smoke and the flames to put him out of his misery! Evidently, God had another plan! One of Joe’s sisters heard him coughing and raced upstairs to find him passed out. The cigarette had burned out, barely staining the bed where it lay. Divine intervention!

As Joe lay in the hospital, he had time to think. He was stunned by the reality of what nearly happened—what he had tried unsuccessfully to do! That time to think was a turning point in Joe’s life. After he was released from the hospital he was determined, with God’s help, to make a change. He went back to his parents’ home, but this time he stayed upstairs to avoid seeing any of his old partners in crime. Joe’s mother was tight on security, and let his old acquaintances know that under no circumstances was he available. Joe’s mother became his protection through the God that strengthened her! When we tell the Lord we want a change, He will respond by putting His plan into place!

Many prayers ascended straight from Joe’s heart to the God of the universe as the days passed in his little upstairs retreat. No longer a drug user or dealer, he needed employment and sought help and direction from God. Joe had never worked a legitimate job in his life. He didn’t know how to work or what it meant to be responsible.

Part of Joe’s rehabilitation was to receive vocational training. As he neared completion, one of the staff members told him about a job at a local rehabilitation center. When Joe went to check on the job, he found out that it was no longer available. God had something else in mind.

Joe learned another position had become available—receptionist for a rehab center. When asked if he was interested, Joe said not only was he interested, he could start immediately. In his eagerness and excitement about the prospects of a job, Joe forgot he had no experience dealing with the public, and that he couldn’t speak correctly. The only language he knew was the slang from the streets. He felt awkward facing this new role.

However, Joe was determined to take advantage of this opportunity. He was convicted in his heart that he should share with the staff person his sordid history of crime and drug use. Joe explained everything about his past and promised that if given the opportunity, he would give them the very best he had to offer. Joe got the job! His first job ever was in a spinal cord injury rehab center. Divine intervention again!

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Where is the miracle in this?” Lots of people have been able to turn their life around and start fresh! Well, not so fast! The miracle is not just in what God does for us, it is also in what God allows us to do for others through His will! Joe was working in a rehabilitation center that could help him manage the difficulties of being paralyzed and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. This was a godsend. God was helping him get through his own trial, but also had Joe in an environment where he would learn to help others. However, before Joe could be effective reaching out to others, he had to face the reality of his own existence. It was through this process that Joe began to see his life as a blessing and not one that should end prematurely.

Joe is not shy to tell any and all who will listen that he considers his being paralyzed and in a wheelchair an act of divine intervention. How can this be? What about the hurt, pain, and disappointment of his life? What about the periods of loneliness and discouragement? What about the isolation, disenfranchisement, and “invisible” treatment he receives from time to time? Joe says that none of that matters because he has found his calling. He tries to help others avoid the mistakes he has made in life and is a prime example of what God can do even while we are yet lost!

Joe is now fifty years old. He still works at the rehabilitation center where he first began, but now he is the Outreach and Prevention coordinator for the Think First program. This is an anti-violence program that targets at-risk youth in Philadelphia. Joe has a tight schedule, speaks all over the city and state, tells people his story, and reaches out to young people who may be heading down the wrong path as he did in his youth.

Joe says that God’s divine intervention placed him in a wheelchair to save his life and prepare him for the work of helping others. No more loneliness! No more isolation! Joe’s life is a gift from God! I am one of several thousands who are extremely grateful that Joe has allowed God to use his life.

We live in a time where people are suffering with all manner of afflictions: physical pain, ambulatory limitations, emotional pain, personal discouragement, loneliness, fear, and disappointment. People experiencing these types of challenges are often isolated in our society in one way or another. Their lack of mobility, mental/physical health issues, homelessness, or incarceration may separate them from friends, family, or community. Plain old apathy from those of us who are too busy to notice that a fellow human being is suffering right in our very midst may be the cruelest isolation of all! What many of us fail to see is how isolation—self-imposed or otherwise—creates a subculture of lonely, disenfranchised people too often invisible to the rest of us, but vitally important to the Savior of the universe!

H. Jean Wright II has earned his doctorate degree in psychology and works with young people for the City of Philadelphia as a clinical and forensic psychologist.

Pullouts:

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9,10).

“Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (Text)