"Limo" Joe has lived behind Home Depot for over six years. He got the nickname Limo because he once ran a limo service, along with two other businesses, before money "became God."
"I went crazy and gave all the money to my kids," he says. Limo's daughter serving in the marines will send him clothes and food, but he refuses money he doesn't ask.
Since then, Limo says he's found everything he needed in life by losing it. He has almost died three times on the streets, but surviving physically is the only hard part for him. Giving up his idol of money allowed Limo to find the joy and peace of Christ and his Spirit, and a humility that only comes with a reverent fear of God.
I was blessed to deliver food to him and other homeless on the Northside as a part of the Bread and Water ministry at Northwest Community Church.
They wonder about "the girls" who come down from Austin on weekends to walk the streets to make money, using it to buy makeup at the Walgreens nearby. They complain about the system, those in leadership who cannot offer any solutions. "Give us bags and pay us to clean up the streets," Limo once asked a judge in vain.
Proverbs 22 is one of his favorite passages from The Bible.
