Pizza Delivery Man

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
Psalm 23 (NIV)
1. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3. He refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
I am writing my own interpretation of Psalm 23 to honor my unsuccessful attempt to be God's pizza delivery driver.

Pizza delivery was a role thrust on me by the trauma of unemployment. I'd much rather be delivering a sermon than pizza but for the time being this vocational aspiration would need to be put on hold. Anything had to be better than doing nothing. I had done good work with Papa John's seven years before, why not show them that a fifty-seven year old man could do it again? The day before I was to begin Sharon and I ordered an extra large pizza just the way we liked it. When I brought the pizza home we were shocked to discover two ingredients missing. I could have cared less, while Sharon decided to give them a piece of her mind. As we walk in the door of Papa John’s, Sharon expresses her displeasure:

I want to speak to the manager"
a young girl, about eighteen, rolls her eyes looking back for help. Gus, the manger comes forward to intercede:

"Is there something I can help you with maam?
"I just want to let you know giving out the wrong pizza can be avoided! All you need to do is look at the pizza before you give it to the customer."

"They do that at Pizza hut (this pizza place happened to be next door)--you see it on the commercials all the time. We don't do that here. Your remake will be out of the oven soon." (Sharon is less than pleased). (She turns around and speaks to me as I try to look invisible).

"I know they have shown the customer the pizza before. I don't want to hear of you not doing the same.

         The Lord is my pizza delivery driver I shall not want, he leads beside a place where toppings abound, restoring my soul, He leads me into the homes of people who love pizza. (Drifter's paraphrase throughtout)
         I was all excited to start my first day at Papa Johns. My sister had given me a GPS in honor of the occasion and I was all psyched up ready to begin. I was greeted by pizza staff that seemed less than enthusiastic to meet me. I asked for a uniform and cap and they said they had none. Their car toppers were also out of supply. I was briefed about how the world of pizza delivery worked, and went on a delivery run with a more experienced driver. I shared about my passion to be a pastor and he was all ears.Now I was ready to go deliver on my own. On the first two or three days, I had few problems. With my GPS in my utility belt, it was Pizza Delivery Man to the rescue. I pictured myself as being like James Kirk of Star Trek headed to planets unknown. Sure I got lost. The GPS was not the perfect solution I had hoped it would be. God was good and therefore I was sure things could only get better.

         The manager and pizza staff they comfort me, even though I walk through the depths of despair caused by wrong deliveries, I will fear no evil for you are with me.
         I thought the end of the world happened when someone stole my GPS. I was determined to do a better job whether I had the GPS or not. I was about ready to leave after having done "my happy chore" (clean up job) on my fourth day of work, when a large order came in. I was ordered by the Sheila (a spindly redhead) to stay. "I need you to stay (aha pizza man to the rescue) I started putting labels on boxes as fast as they came out of the machine. After that I was told to deliver a couple orders of pizzas. The only problem is that when I got to the place of delivery I found out I had taken the wrong order. One man came to the door in a walker and my life felt like it was slipping away. I was told by Sheila to get back to the store so that I could deliver him a free pizza. As I left to deliver the pizza I heard Sheila scream about the labels being on the wrong boxes. What else could go wrong?

         My pizza tip money runs over, my head is crowned with dreams that I would end up in pizza heaven. Surely goodness and mercy would follow me and I would dwell at Papa God's forever.
         I admit it was fun to get tips for my trouble. I had never made anywhere close to that amount of money before. I was convinced if I could stay the course paradise was not far away.
         I had a rough start to begin the day. I took the wrong order and was told to get back to the store. I fixed my mistake as quickly as I could. Gus seemed to be in a bad mood that day and I decided to be helpful. What would pizza heaven be like without Gus? I took two pizza cups and put it in the box he had just finished. I then went looking for the box for my order. Gus took the box I had just helped with and waved it in my face. He was not pleased and was not open to my sorry frame of mind.
          Later in the day Gus called me to his office.
          I had only been there four hours and I was supposed to be there all night. He asked me for my receipts and then told me I had to get a new job. I had made too many mistakes and he was letting me go.

         Deliverance in this situation meant I was letting go of my pizza delivery dream and letting someone else be the pizza delivery man I could not be. I am glad my Papa in heaven accepts me for who I am. After this experience I decided I would be better off delivering sermons. Who cares about raising dough when one can witness to others how God raised Jesus and others from the dead?