14 Years on the Couch

My wife and I were set to be married in October.  At the time, I was working in Houston, and she was in College Station starting her PhD.  We planned to get married and for me to find a job as soon as I could in College Station, which didn’t offer a lot of possibilities.  However, in August of that year, I unexpectedly secured a job in College Station, and I needed to start immediately. 

Being a devout Christian, I didn’t want to live with my fiancée before we’d tied the knot, so I appealed to my pastor for assistance.  I didn’t hold out a lot of hope of him knowing someone that could put me up for a few months, but God in His infinitely, amazing love came to my rescue.  A few hours later, my pastor called me back to tell me that he’d found me a “home.”  He was currently doing pre-marital counseling for another young guy in our church, who was a firefighter and paramedic for the city.  He was rarely home (doing back-to-back 24-hour shifts), so he offered to let me stay on his couch.  For him, it would give him someone to be at his place to look after things.  For me, it would give me a place to crash.

So, I called him up, not knowing what to expect from this complete stranger.  He seemed like a nice-enough guy on the phone, and we agreed to meet at a coffee shop, so he could give me a key.  When I asked him how I’d recognize him, he said, “I’m wearing a blue shirt, and I’m bald.”  I laughed that he had chosen those two particular things to describe himself, but it turned out that it was a perfect description, as he was the only bald guy, wearing a blue shirt, in the entire coffee shop!  I liked him right off the bat.  He was funny and easy-going, and you could tell right off that he had a huge heart. 

All told, I spent around two months sleeping on his couch.  I tried to respect his space, picking up my bedding every morning and stuffing it in the back room, and rolling it out every night to sleep.  I kept one gallon of milk and one box of cereal in his house, and I didn’t eat any of his food…even though he offered constantly.  He got up before me, and we easily fell into a routine of him using up all of the hot water in the shower and leaving me with the cold.  He was usually gone before I got out of the shower, so I hardly saw him, except for a few hours on his day off.

Despite that, we remained friends after I got married.  I even attended his wedding, which was three months after mine.  We started a Bible study together, I visited him at the fire station, we went to each other’s houses for dinners and parties.  I've helped him chop down trees.  I've suffered with poison ivy with him.  I've been there to see both of his kids born and grow up.  I've seen him struggle through a rough first marriage and find unbelievable happiness in a second.  I have grown to see him like a brother, and I love him like he’s family.

This month marks 14 years of friendship with JK.  An unexpected friendship that started with God moving a man’s heart to let a stranger sleep on his couch, and a man being faithful enough to listen.  We never know how or when people are going to come into our lives, and we never know how long they’ll stay there.  To have someone withstand the test of time is a whole other level of blessing.  I’m grateful to know JK, and I couldn’t ask for a better friend.  Despite the fact that we now live almost four hours apart, we always manage to find a way to see each other, and every time it’s like we’ve never been apart.