So what occurred that would change my life forever. It was coin boy. It's what I called him after that day. I use to know his name back then but as my memory banks continue to get filled up with more and more stories the only name I remember for him is coin boy.
I had been a follower of Christ for about a year at this point. It was just a normal day at highschool. I was in the cafeteria having my lunch, laughing and talking with people. I was wearing my red and white wrestling boots as I munched down on my burger and fries. Upon wafting down my last bite I got up to go for a walk. I began heading down the walkway that was between 'the rail' (the cool place to hang out) and the 10 rows of lockers on the left. Up ahead I could hear laughing and could see a few guys standing in what appeared to be a circle. As I rounded the corner I saw pennies leaving the hands of the guys standing in a circle around this young boy. The 'entertainment', who is 'Coin Boy', was picking up the coins as the jackasses continued to throw the coins to the ground. I fucking lost it. I was ready to rip the heads off of each of those boys and they knew it. I was known in the highschool as one of the guys never to fight. I had a history of being able to hold my own against some of the toughest guys in town (Which really was more rumor then reality. I was tough but not that tough. It's funny how people can take a couple stories and turn them into legends). Why so angry?
Coin boy was a bit autistic. He was part of the foster care program and had a lot of issues both mental and emotional. Every day coin boy would go around looking for coins to buy himself lunch. A few of us in the school would buy him lunch or give him some money. I had spoken a number of times with him about his life and heard his stories of woe. He didn't have an easy life and he didn't ask to be the person he is. His parents or lack thereof made him this way. God made him this way. Life made him this way. He had no fucking chance of being anything but coin boy.
So when I turned that corner and saw that this privileged, smart, some athletic, group of jackasses were treating another human being like a friggin piece of shit I lost it. At the top of my lungs, in a school that houses 1400 students, the entire commons area and lunch room quieted as I went on a diatribe of righteous anger. I bent down and began picking up the pennies for coin boy. He said, "Thank you."
The boys went sheepish, said sorry, and then quickly dispersed. I was so angry that people could treat another human being so poorly. I didn't know what to do after that. I was literally a wreck. It made no sense. People were beginning to make no sense. Why would we treat people like that. Like garbage. Like they are nothing but entertainment put here for us to treat however we want.
As I continued down the hallway what occurred next began my journey into evangelicalism.
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