THE SHEPHERDS INN

That’s the name of the next to the cheapest hotel in town and where I have been living for five days. Janice, a smiling toothless woman checked me in Sunday. Sunday night came a bad storm and I looked out my window to see a couple room-less guys in waterproof parkas and carrying backpacks, huddled under a Mesquite tree.
The next morning I got up and went down to the little dining area for the complimentary breakfast. The big plasma TV was set on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and a preacher-man was talking about God’s Grace and how all our problems are already taken care of if we just, through faith, let that grace shine its glorious light upon our face. The two room-less fellows from under the Mesquite tree the night before sat at a table, out of the weather and sipping good hot coffee, eating bagels and Rice Krispees, oblivious of today’s message.
It was good to see they are not without a heart down at the Shepherds Inn.

When I pulled into the Shepherds Inn at 5:00pm Monday evening after work, the two room-less fellows under the mesquite tree had been replaced by two barefoot young women wearing cut-off britches and skinny little halter tops, and they smiled and waved to me as I got out of my truck. I nodded politely and ran upstairs as fast as my legs could fly.
They are not without anything down here at the Shepherds Inn.
But I think I will be smart to just stay in my room at the Shepherds Inn, and not go out for anything..
Just stay in my room.
Stay in my room.