LifeGuard for Jesus-short story

This is a fiction short story I wrote a few years ago. I just stumbled across it in my computer and thought you might enjoy it.

As I read the last few lines I wanted to run right out and find me a Lifeguard sweatshirt! You will want one too!

Living under that bridge isn’t too cool. Well, yeah, in fact it is too cool. It’s cold. I didn’t grab a coat when I ran out the door. I was so frightened that my boyfriend would hit me again. So many times he came home so out of his skull with those crazy drugs. You name it, he tried it. He came home last night yelling and staggering through the apartment searching for me. I had to run out fast, with nothing but the clothes on my back.

All I wanted was to get out from under my parents thumb. Just wanted to live my life my way without someone always telling me what to do. Look at me now. I’m so scared. There are other people living here and they are pretty creepy.

All except that one lady. What did she say her name was? Lisa? Leslie? Something like that. She seems different from the rest. Always trying to help and asking if there is anything she can do for us. She came over to me a while ago and said, “Hi! My name is Lisa”, and asked me why I was here. I said, “Well, why don’t you tell me why you are here? You don’t seem to belong with all these homeless losers.

“I am a Lifeguard”, Lisa replied. “I try to help those who want to be saved, through my Lord Jesus. You know, kind of like a lifeguard who saves someone who is drowning in water. I pray for those who are drowning in hopelessness. I ask my Lord to please put his arms around each and every one who is cold and hungry and just pull them out of this misery. I pray for them to receive Jesus as their personal savior.”

“Wow, Lisa, how do you know how to help folks that way?”, I asked. She said, “Well, once upon a time I was a young girl like you who had run away from home. Of course, I discovered life out in the big wide world wasn’t what I expected. I had no skills to find a job but too much pride to ask my folks to let me come home. One night in a place just about like this, I suddenly felt hands all over me. I begged and pleaded but they wouldn’t leave me alone. The next morning I woke up in a hospital bed.”

“Oh my gosh”, I said, “what happened then?”

“When I woke up”, Lisa continued, “a lady was sitting next to me wearing a sweater with the word, LIFEGUARD, written in large, capital letters. She asked me if I knew Jesus and said she would like to pray for me. She said He told her to spend her life being a lifeguard for youngsters who were in trouble and needed help when the waves of life became too rough to swim to safety.

Lisa said she told the lady, “I have heard of Jesus but I don’t really know him. Could you help me find Him?” She replied, “That is why I am here. He told me to come to you this morning.” He wants me to pray with you to ask Him to come into your heart and accept Him as your personal savior. Jesus loves you.”

Then the lady reached into a bag she was carrying and pulled out a sweatshirt like the one she was wearing and said, “He told me to ask you to wear this shirt and when you hear Him call to you that a child needs a lifeguard, He wants you to go out and throw out His lifeline of prayer to them.

That was when I noticed that Lisa was wearing a sweatshirt that had the word, LIFEGUARD, written in large, bold letters.

I said, “Lisa, I really need help. I am frightened living this way. Would you help me call my parents and see if they will let me come home? And Lisa, do you think that your Lord Jesus would forgive me of my sins and love me like he loves you? Lisa replied, “ That is why He sent me. He has always loved you and has just been waiting for you to call on Him.”

“And by the way, I have a gift my Lord asked me to give to you.”

As she pulled a sweatshirt out of her bag I saw the large, bold letters on the front, “LIFEGUARD”.