By Matt Sieger
“His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man; the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147:10-11).
I have a good friend named Douglas. I met him about 15 years ago in a way only God could have orchestrated.
One Saturday morning, my wife’s MacBook froze up. I volunteered to drive about eight miles from our home in South San Francisco to the nearest Apple store in Burlingame to see if they could repair it. I was wearing the shirt I had slept in, I am a Jewish believer in Jesus, and the shirt says, “Jesus Made Me Kosher,” with the kosher symbol alongside.
My wife hadn’t started the laundry yet. And I had no other clean shirts! So I just got up and left for the store, not thinking much about the shirt I was wearing. When I arrived at the store, a few people stared at my shirt like I was from another planet. However, the Apple security guard took a different kind of interest. As I was leaving the store, he stopped me and said, “That’s neat. What does that mean? Are you Jewish?”
I could see he was genuinely interested and curious. I explained that I am Jewish and that when I put my trust in Jesus, He declared that I was “kosher” – clean, forgiven, set apart. Douglas, who is Filipino, told me he loves Israel. It turns out that he lives in South San Francisco. I asked if he would like to meet for coffee sometime so we could discuss these things further.
Douglas eagerly took me up on my offer. After we talked over coffee, I asked if he wanted to trust in Jesus as his Savior. He jumped at the chance. We went to my car for some privacy, and, sitting in the passenger seat, Douglas asked Jesus to come into his life.
I invited him to church, and he came the very next Sunday and has kept coming ever since. His girlfriend, Liane, who was living with him, also started attending church and gave her life to Jesus. Then they decided to get married.
Douglas and Liane had horrible neighbors. I experienced them when my wife and I visited our new friends. The neighbors were a bunch of thugs, just looking for trouble. They would put trash on Douglas’s lawn, stare him down every time he came home, mutter to each other about him when he walked by.
Inadvisedly, Douglas, when the chief thug started taunting him again, got the gun he owns from his garage and showed it to his tormentor, just to let him know he had it. He did not point it at him. But it was still a bad move. The thug’s mother, who also lived there, called the police and claimed Douglas had pointed it at her. Douglas ended up in court and the judge issued a restraining order.
Then one day, Douglas was at Peet’s Coffee. When he went to sit down with his coffee, he noticed the mother sitting at a nearby table. Because of the restraining order, he quickly moved away. But she called the police anyway. They went to court, where she lied again, claiming Douglas had approached her and talked to her at Peet’s. Douglas didn’t think to ask Peet’s for video footage from their camera until more than a month had gone by. He then learned that they only kept the footage for 30 days!
So the restraining order was extended. To make matters worse, the mother worked at the same tech firm where Douglas was now employed as a security guard. She told Human Resources about Douglas’s restraining order, and they fired him.
All this time, Douglas faithfully came to church and to his Monday night men’s group, of which I was a part. He knew he had blown it. But he also knew we all loved him and so did God.
Time passed. The restraining order expired. But the awful neighbors were still there, doing all they could to make life even more miserable for my friend.
In the meantime, Douglas had applied for a job at the San Francisco airport. We all had our doubts he would get hired once they did a background check, given the tightened security measures at the airports. But Douglas was honest about all the court proceedings. And we all prayed. To our amazement (and to his), he was hired. He now fuels the jets and loves his job.
Shortly afterwards, his neighbors moved, apparently kicked out because they could no longer pay rent. Now Douglas has a very nice couple with young children next door.
Through all of his trials, Douglas, perhaps without even knowing the verse, followed the Apostle Peter’s instructions: “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3). And we all got to see God demonstrate that grace in his life.
Seven years ago, my wife and I moved from South San Francisco across the Bay to Martinez, an hour away. Shortly after, Douglas and Liane came to visit us for the first time. We went to church together and caught up with each other afterwards at a restaurant and then in our new home. It was so good to see them.
They remain happily married and faithfully attending church. I’m sure God could have reached them in other ways, but we were glad to be a part of it, all through the failure of my wife’s computer!
Matt Sieger, now retired, is a former sportswriter/columnist for New York and California newspapers. He has a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.A. in magazine journalism from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. He is the author of “The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants.”
