Living with a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar
by Rodolpho Carrasco
April, 2000
in the Colorado Christian Chronicle and the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper
Group
[ Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee
Christian Family Center in Pasadena. Email him at rudy@qvo.cc
A few weeks ago 19-year-old Burt was evicted from his apartment because he didn't pay his rent. Burt (not his real name) didn't pay his rent because he was fired from two jobs, one because he was constantly late for work, the other because he stood around all day talking to friends and lifting nary a finger toward his job.
Some close friends of mine had found him both the apartment and the two jobs. They also found him another place to live when he was first kicked out of his mother's home for a laundry list of offenses, including running up an astronomical phone bill calling 1-900 numbers. He violated rules at that home and was kicked out.
With these and other antics Burt burned every bridge with charitable people in the neighborhood. Still, no one gave up on him.
Someone else found him a spot at a school in Washington state where he could learn life skills and work toward his G.E.D. But after a 26-hour bus journey he arrived at the school only to find that the rules were strict. He proceeded to curse every staff member, and he demanded to be sent back to Pasadena. The staff was glad to grant his wish, dropping him off at the bus station at noon, even though the Greyhound back didn't leave until midnight.
Last I saw, Burt was wandering around the neighborhood looking for something to eat. Someone offered him lunch if he would only work for it. Burt didn't answer the offer. Within a few minutes he had drifted down the street, looking for an easier way to fill his stomach.
I have experienced a range of emotions during my three-year relationship with Burt. We know each other pretty well. We traveled together to Mexico City and other places. Lots of money has passed between us, as well as clothes, food, AA batteries, rides around town, you name it. It's disheartening to watch him make bad choices and then suffer the consequences.
But even though he is in the dumps right now, my deepest sentiment is hope, because Burt strikes me as a Nebuchadnezzar character.
In the Old Testament Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar gets full of himself and goes crazy. He wanders in the fields like an animal for seven years, until he (in his own words) looks to the heavens and acknowledges the Creator God. Then he is restored to his right mind and returned to a life of earthly glory, albeit as a kinder and gentler ruler.
The Nebuchadnezzar story says that if Burt would look up to the heavens, to God, he would find the security and peace that is so elusive to him now. Rather than his present path toward replicating Nebuchadnezzar's madness, he could be on Nebuchadnezzar's path of restoration.
I wish Burt would take his eyes off himself long enough to see that his situation could be much worse.
He is not a poor Mexican kid from a rural part of Mexico with two options for survival: either sell drugs or leave his family and the land he loves for the perilous life of an illegal immigrant in the United States. He does not live in the parts of Africa populated by young children and elderly because AIDS has killed off everyone in between. He is not the woman trapped in a tree in flooded Mozambique who had to deliver her own child as she clung to the tree's branches.
No, there are worse things in life than being a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar. But Burt doesn't have the eyes to see nor the ears to hear - yet.
We keep trying. Some in the community think humor is a key to Burt's mental health. If only he could learn to laugh, even a bit, about his situation, about the dumb mistakes he's made, about the holes he digs for himself, about how lazy and ungrateful he's been - if only he could say he's sorry and humble himself and obey the people who are trying to show him how to live right, people who've shown that they will go the extra mile for him...
If.
To some readers, the people in this story who are close to Burt may seem callous. How can we let Burt drift around in need? But we haven't given up on him, because if we were in his position we wouldn't want people to give up on us. We pray with him, and for him, daily. Every request he makes is seriously considered, and his needs are met when he does his part - even now, after the fiasco in Washington state.
And through many tears, many extra opportunities given when common sense said otherwise, and many burned up resources, I and others have been reminded of age old proverbs:
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
If a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat.
You can't do something for someone that they are not willing to do for themselves.
Here's a prayer that Burt takes his eyes off himself and looks toward the heavens - soon.
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