This phrase gets tossed around quite a bit in F3 – “We need to look out for the six, Remember the six, Pick up the six, etc. But what does it actually look like…in action? What I witnessed this past weekend was as literal as it gets and it’s worth sharing.
Rewind about a year or so. My wife tells me a guy from her high school has Facebook messaged her desperate for money. Mind you, she hasn’t heard from him in 20 years and they weren’t even “friends” in the non-Facebook sense, but we talked about it and figured we could “pick up the six”…so that night I was off to Food Lion to drop some money into Western Union – it seemed that desperate of a situation.
Now again, a few weeks back same situation – desperate for money. All kinds of excuses. I can tell it’s not for the reasons he’s saying. I tell my wife to tell him we can’t help anymore and then block him. “We can’t help everyone”. (way to pick up the six, Shutty)
She can’t though, her heart is too big.
She tells him she doesn’t think he’s being honest with us but if he ever wants to be honest she’ll help him find the real help he needs.
Now Friday rolls around and as we are packing up to head out on a family ski trip he messages her again. THIS TIME he comes clean… She immediately gets to work on finding him a place. She knows about Healing Transitions because F3 has been partnering with them for years now, thanks to many amazing HIM in Raleigh and Carpex, but especially Frey Daddy and the work he does to support HT.
So my wife calls HT and an F3 guy answers the phone (of course)! The plan is set, he can come the next morning…but wait, we are leaving town to ski with our family. After a few attempts to get a ride secured we do what we always do in a pinch…ask the men of F3.
As I’m driving to the mountains my wife is on my Slack as we @channel over 150 men 🙂 “He needs a ride tomorrow at 0730 from Cary to downtown Raleigh” (very specific…and on a Saturday…and it’s 8PM already…fingers crossed…)
I want to say within 15 minutes we had not 1, or 2, or 3, or 5 guys say YES…we had 8 guys say “I’ll do it. I’ll take this random stranger from point A to point B” on what could be quite an awkward car ride.
Blown away yet? “Naw, this is F3, Shut-In”. OK let me keep going.
I talk with one Carpex Pax and give him the details on the phone. He hangs up with me and calls this guy he’s never met to say hey. The next morning him and another pax are at this guys place. After waiting there with no response for 15 minutes (YHC probably would have left) the guy comes out and they get him downtown!! Then the two pax return home to their families having “picked up the six”.
Good story–oh, what’s that? It’s not over?
It’s not. The guy was only able to interview for the program and couldn’t stay. So Pax #2 drives back downtown, picks him up and brings him back. The man has to go back Monday now – so Pax #1 texts me to say it’s fine, he’ll take him again Monday – not a prob.
And it’s still not over!! Next thing I’m told is Pax #2 TAKES THE GUY TO DINNER SATURDAY NIGHT! They discuss needing to get a storage unit to put the man’s belongings while he’s at HT. (This overflows my heart so much you have no idea.)
And to top it off, they give Healing Transitions a call after dinner just in case they can get him a bed there now and THEY CAN! AND THEY DID! He is in the program, praise God!!!
So Saturday night a Carpex Pax who my wife doesn’t know takes the guy she sort of knew 20 years ago in high school to Healing Transitions to potentially save his life.
I wish I could find the perfect way to say this next part…
This man clearly had no one else to turn to. I mean literally – when you turn to an old classmate you barely knew with a cry for help, you are at the bottom. And God Bless my wife and these F3 guys that went all the way to the back of the pack and picked him up.
When you PICK UP THE SIX what you are saying to that person is “You have worth, Your life matters, You are loved, You are known, and You deserve it.” You are potentially saving a life through these seemingly small actions.
God has placed you in this unique place, at the unique time, for this unique purpose. And it’s to pick up the six around you. Be ready.