THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED PART II A “MEN”ISTER OF STYLE

Back in 2015, God told me to quit my job, walk the streets and help His people. Sitting on the couch, glancing at the bills on the coffee table, I told God, “You’re tripping.” As doubt, fear and uncertainty crept in I asked, what we all do, “Oh God if that’s you, show me a sign, then I’ll know for sure?” I typed up my resignation letter, but I dare not press send. Fear said, “Man, you CRAZY!!” In the draft folder it went. I thought, If I got fired from my job, I could at least have a little cushion from unemployment benefits. At that time, I worked from home as a Remote Desktop Support Technician, so I had to try and come up with a creative way to get fired. I ashamed to say it, but I was condescending to my customers. I’d let the phone ring and not answer it. I even did a “no call no show” from HOME and still nothing. For the life of me, I could not get fired. It was If God was saying, “I’m not even going to let you rely on a little check you can’t live on no way. You’re going to have to trust SOLELY on Me” After all, He’d already started showing me signs. One day, on my way to the dumpster, I found 11, $100 bills scattered in various spots. Prior to that, a pharmaceutical company called to provide me with $3076 worth of much needed medication for free! He was showing me that I could trust Him. “Well, Al, you’ve worked since you were 16 and you’ve struggled your whole life, so you know what that life is like because you lived it” I thought.
What I didn’t know was what life would be like if God supplied all of my needs. I located my email, audibly, I whispered, “God, I trust You” then pressed the send key. That was on 09/25. My last day was on 10/02 and on 10/05 I was out in the streets of downtown. Now, I had no idea of what help my people meant, but it seems like every time I went down, I was able to find some of His people. So I sat and listened to the stories of some of the individuals, people in transition or recovery men and women. Laughed at the jokes. Cried at some of the memories. Sat in urine-stained alleyways and really built some genuine relationships. It didn’t’ matter who you were. What your habit was. I listened. I shared. I started passing out clothes, hygiene products, from out of the trunk of my car. Even though I wasn’t a non-profit organization, I was blessed to feed over 300 homeless men and women, through my efforts from social media posts. I began doing resumes, mentoring a few of the individuals I met as well as well as connecting them to much needed resources.
It was during this time I felt I needed to do more. God had gifted me with a love for fashion and I began to use it to reimage the lives and restore dignity to his people; I started doing fashion shows and my models were either homeless, in transition or recovery or a returning citizen. It wasn’t just about fashion, but an avenue for those individuals to present whatever gifts and talents they were blessed with. God always provide provisions for His vison as I was able to do all of this with little to no money. Realizing, I needed a job, I told God I only wanted a job that allowed me to help individuals. God allowed me to cross paths with a brother, who worked at a non-profit agency called SER Jobs and now, I get paid to do what I use to do for free. It doesn’t feel like a job but an extension of who I’ve always been at my core. This journey has been filled with so many uncertainties, but we were all created for and with purpose. Yes, God does know the plans He has for us, but sometimes, while we are waiting, trusting God is at times a hard pill to swallow. What I realized is every time I made up my mind to change or go in a different direction, that’s when the attacks intensified. The devil knows if he can stop or thwart our progress, we’d never reach our full potential. There’s GREATNESS on the inside of each of us. We just need to submit to the process.