The hitchhiker I’d picked up just west of Troy, Kansas, sat holding his notebook and Bible and telling me about his traveling ministry to the “Lord’s little lost sheep.”

“I was sitting in this homeless shelter in Texas at meal time. I had my Bible laying on the table and no one would sit down with me. ‘Lord, they hate me,’ I said. ‘No one will sit with me.’ And then the Lord said, ‘It’s not you they hate, Willie; it’s me.’

“So, I argued with him, ‘No, it’s me.'”

With northeast Kansas rolling by, William Jones looked over at me, “And then the Lord told me, ‘Put your Bible down in your lap.’ So, I put my Bible down in my lap. My table was full in no time. Then, the Lord said, ‘OK, Willie, now take your Bible back out and lay it on the table.’

“I did that. As soon as I did, everybody got up and left. ‘See,’ the Lord said, ‘I told you it was me.'”

Willie went on to tell me about other reactions people had to his Bible. Some would say, “Keep that Bible away from me,” and others would state, “I don’t believe all that stuff.” Another, according to Willie, took him to McDonald’s and bought him a meal. “I was raised up around religion,” the man told him, “but I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe it’s real.”

“I told him, ‘Well, he’s real, all right, whether you believe in him or not. And you just fed one of his little sheep.”

Well, I do believe, and I’d just given that same little sheep a ride and a chance to cool off on a hot day. But he’d given me more than that. He’d reminded me of the power of simple faith and the willingness to give up everything to follow the Lord. “My kids are all mad at me. Even though they’re all grown, they’ve disowned me. My own Dad thinks I’m an idiot; he won’t even talk to me.”

I guess Willie’s family is right; he’s definitely been touched. And, he’s touching others. As for me, I’ve been picking up hitchhikers for nearly forty years. Some, I gave a ride across town and others across the state. I’ve shared a little time and money and one I gave a place to spend the night and a bus ticket on to Memphis from Fulton, Kentucky. Whether it was little or nothing or quite a bit more, I’ve never picked up a one but what it turned out that I received more than I gave.