When I was CEO at union Rescue Mission in L.A. I had a globe of the world in my office. I had taken the globe apart and put it back together again upside down so the South pole was on the top.I liked doing that because it upset some people and that gave me the chance to tease them. I also did it because it reminded me that sometimes it is a good thing to have my world turned upside down.
One time my boss the Board Chairman came into my office and gave me a letter from him in which he thanked me for all I had accomplished at the mission. The letter was effusive in its praise.I still have it all these decades later.
A few weeks later and told me that the board had given me a new job. It was a job I would hate and would fail if I attempted to do it. I recognized what was happening and resigned. In effect they were saying they wanted me out and wanted me to resign so that I would not sue them. Of course what they had done was so transparent in it’s manipulation I could have sued and won.
What they didn’t know was I would have never sued. In John 17 Jesus tells us that people would know that he was from the Father if Jesus followers showed their love and unity. If I had sued the Mission it would have damaged the Gospel in the eyes of the street people I had spent 20 years trying to love.
I walked out of the Mission and drove straight to San Diego to tell my sister Ruth Elaine Caywood Nutter what had happened. When I told her she said “Oh thank God”. I was shocked at what she said.
When I had caught my breath I asked her what she meant. She said “George, if you stayed at the mission in 18 months I wouldn’t have had my brother. You would have been dead” I instantly knew that she was right. I knew that God had a better more suitable plan for the next years of my life.
My world was turned upside down. That did not dissolve my pain or ease my sense of injustice. I healed over the next months. Part of my new life was to get deeply involved in Al-Anon and to learn a healthier way of thinking. Another part of my new life is being expressed in me writing this for you right now.
I love my life. I have so much to be thankful for. I sometimes say I ought to go down to the mission and hug all those board members that chased me out.
George Caywood 