The Pearl of Great Price: Mindy Grace

 

Me and Mindy Grace. A street corner in Dallas.

To read the first post in this series click here.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46

As our family trotted downstairs to breakfast on our first day of outreach in inner city Dallas, we all wondered what we had got ourselves into. Our first outreach “assignment” was to drive a few blocks away to a nearby street corner and hand out breakfast burritos to Day Laborers and engage them in prayer and conversation. “Day laborers” turned out to be a loose term. We encountered a group of six or eight individuals, all in various states of dishevelment, some obviously homeless, most either high on one drug or another or else intoxicated to one degree or another.

All were hopelessly desperate.

As we approached, hungry, grimy hands reached for the food we carried with us. The smell of alcohol was redolent in the air. I had a moment of doubt as I considered that I had just brought my children into the midst of this group. I could tell most of them expected us to give them the food and then hightail it out of there. But that wasn’t why we were there.

I took a deep breath and I lifted my eyes from the cracked sidewalk and dared to look these people in the eye.

One honest and real look and my heart just melted and peace flooded through me. I smiled at each one as I met their eyes, handed them a burrito, and gave them a pat on the back or a squeeze of the hand. They smiled back. I saw on the outskirts of the group, further on down the sidewalk, a woman who was trying awfully hard not to notice we were there. Without another thought, I headed straight for her. You see, I had prayed beforehand that there would be at least one woman for me to talk to, so I didn’t want to waste a moment.

As I approached her, she looked away. She refused the food I offered. “Give it to him over there. He’s hungrier than I am.”  I introduced myself and asked her name. With a bit of surprise she answered, “Grace.”

“Can I pray for you today, Grace?”

Then she really looked at me. Tears filled her eyes – the eyes of this unseen woman. And then I saw what God wanted me to see: The Pearl of Great Price. This is why I was here. And Grace began to pour out her heart.

She shared her story with me. She told me she’s the black sheep of her family. They were back in Oklahoma and didn’t want anything to do with her. She married a mean man and started drinking. Somehow she raised her kids up right. A daughter who works with disabled kids. Two sons who joined the military and now that they’re home are hard workers. But Grace, she’s a drunk now and has pushed everybody away. She can’t stop. Her kids try to take care of her, but she knows she has failed them. She prays. Often. She shares with me that her real name is Mindy Grace, but she likes to go by Grace because it reminds her of God’s grace.

I put my arm around her shoulder for a minute while she talks and cries. She sobs when she finally tells me what she wants me to pray about. “Pray that I’ll be a good mom to my kids. That I can stop drinking and be there for them.”  And I can feel the shame she carries just hovering all around her, an oily, oozing presence that has completely broken her down.

As I begin to pray for Mindy Grace, another woman sidles close to us. I’ve already talked to her, but she is the most beaten down of all the people on that corner and she has refused to let me pray for her. But as I prayed, I opened my eyes and saw the tears running down her cheeks. K.K. is her name. Her heart is sweet, but if ever I saw the walking dead I knew I was seeing it on her. I included K.K. in my prayer and she drew closer, putting her hand on Mindy Grace’s arm. Both women cried as I prayed.

After I finished praying, I stood and talked with Mindy Grace for another hour. I listened to her explain her intense struggle with alcohol. I witnessed her embarrassment as she wondered aloud what we must think of her. The longer she talked, the more I realized that she desperately needed a drink. After a while she started getting sick. I wondered if I was going to leave covered in vomit. She pulled out a large can of beer she had hidden in her jacket and showed it to me. Said she was going to have to drink it or she was going to be sick.

“Grace, why don’t you give me that beer?” I asked her.

She shook her head emphatically, “I can’t. No. I need to leave now and go home and drink this.”

I kept talking to her. “Grace, you have value. You don’t have to go home and drink. You can surrender to the Lord and let Him be the strength you need.”  More tears. Desperation. One of the men we were with gave her the name of a rehab clinic and a nearby church that will help anyone, no questions.

“Grace, please, why don’t you give me your beer?”  Again, the nodding head. No.

Then she looked up and met my eyes. “Okay, I’m gonna give you this can of beer.”

Grace did eventually give me her beer (you can see it in the pan I’m holding in the picture above). I talked with her for a while longer. Prayed with her some more. Before we left I introduced her to my kids. My oldest son put out his hand, as he’s been taught, to shake hers. Mindy Grace looked stunned and immediately physically drew back.

“I can’t shake his hand.”  I’m not worthy; I’m not clean were the words written on her face.

“No ma’am, Grace. You shake his hand. You are worthy of that honor.”

Again, tears filled her eyes from the simple gesture of being treated like a human being.

I stood on that street corner and talked with Mindy Grace for two hours. Other members of my team had similar conversations with some of the men standing around. A homeless man actually gave my children money; the men teased them and complimented us on how beautiful our kids are. For two hours these people laughed with us, cried with us, and opened up their very battered hearts to a small group of people who bothered to see beyond what lies upon the surface.

I heard the Lord whispering in my heart, “Marnie, this is the pearl of great price. These are the ones the man in the Bible was willing to sell everything he had to purchase. These I would redeem. When you look into their eyes, it’s the pearl of great price looking back.”

For Mindy Grace, the pearl of great of price.