MR. NICE GUY

I was taught that when we learn our lesson, things will change and we will no longer need to keep getting the same message or lesson presented to us. This seems way to simple and the times that I don’t want to believe this are when I THINK I have learned my lesson and opportunities keep being presented to me.

I have always been a nice guy. I like being a nice guy and have always steered clear of mean people. I always thought being a nice guy was the right thing to do and I worked hard at it. I always hated the saying “Nice guys finish last.”….because where did that leave me. This brings me to my story.

I walk at my park on a regular basis and I kept running into a really nice man named Donny. He grew up in Vietnam and always stopped to say hello and chat for minute. I usually walk with my buddy Dogman so most of our encounters were brief because walking with Dogman is a moving experience. One day I was walking by myself and ran across Donny when I was leaving. After our initial conversation he started witnessing to me about Christ and his church and how I could go with him sometime. Here is where the nice guy comes in…….nice guys are not rude, they listen even when I don’t want to because I don’t want to be mean to Donny ……kind of the nice guy code. Well, twenty minutes later with a CD in hand about God, I was on my way. I left with the question “what was that all about?”…..I believe there are no accidents……nothing came to me though….so I tucked it away and moved on.

Fast forward about 3 weeks at another day at the park and guess who I ran into. As a former nice guy, I would have lied and told Donny I listened to the CD and it was interesting and would have done anything not to hurt his feelings. Well this is where I changed……with love in my heart I greeted Donny and sure enough he wanted to know what I thought of the CD……I breathed and said “Donny, I have your CD and want to give it back to you……I am grateful that you shared with me and I am not interested in listening to CD and/or going to your church…..I have my own spiritual path and am very happy with where I am at. Thanks for sharing this and connecting with me.” He smiled, told me to keep the CD and I have not seen Donny since.

That day I got a real big lesson of the difference between nice and kind. I was kind to Donny and I had my boundaries and I realized that I am a lot more interested in being a kind man with boundaries than a nice guy with walls……so I guess I learned my lesson……..thanks Donny.