I was in Las Vegas last week for a business conference and expo. If you attend or exhibit at business conferences regardless of your industry you’re going to hit Las Vegas at some-time or another and this was my 6 trip out to the city in the desert where everyone goes for a good time.
While most workers in the resorts, hotels and casinos in Vegas are very cordial, they are paid to be, you can sometime sense with many that you encounter a kind unrest or a demeanor of un-satisfaction with perhaps their life or the world in general. I think the great contrast that is displayed in Vegas adds to this demeanor and what I mean is that if you worked in one the resorts or businesses supporting these industries it could be waning on you to be immersed in such opulence. While Las Vegas is much more that gambling and partying it is living in excess that is at the core of everything that’s offered to its visitors here. Many people come to escape or to let go and forget the worries of the world. The question is to let go and let what do what??
However this time I encountered some outside the typical worker in Vegas. Most of the time when I come to Vegas my typical cab ride conversation typically goes something like “Where are you headed, how did you do, Win or Lose?, how was the partying, where did you go and have a good time” all the while most of these cabbies don’t seem too happy because when or if the conversation diverts to other items like I ask them “How’s your day” it digresses into a parade of complaints about the world. I think mainly this is misery loves company if someone agree or indentifies with your problems in life it somehow makes you feel better. For the most part I like engaging the cabbies in conversation, one it helps pass the time.
Thursday morning on my ride from my hotel to the airport I encountered a different cabbie, from the moment I entered the cab and he asked how I was doing that morning I knew something was different and almost as about as quick as this happened I sensed he was a Christian. We started a dialog that progressed into him talking about his family, his wife and children. He was originally from Guatemala, which was interesting because I’m working on a business opportunity in Guatemala. He talked about that he’s been a cabbie for nine months and prior worked for FedEx ground for 9 years, but quit because of the hours and that he wanted Sunday’s off. He indicated that driving the cab paid less, but that he was blessed to have Sunday and Monday off to spend more time with his family. He asked about my family and I mentioned that my oldest child (Daughter) got married this summer. He commented how wonderful I must have felt and he started talking about how great he’ll feel when his daughter who is now 10 gets married, he hopes in no less than 12 years from now, he did go woha is me that I have to pay for a wedding. His attitude was positive and up-lifting he did not complain about one thing, even when I asked him how business was in Vegas, he commented not as good as the past but he said he was thankful to have this job driving the cab. He did not ask any of the typical scripted cabbie questions. I felt a great peace about my brother from Guatemala and that his faith as a Christian allows him to work and live in a place with such great pressure and temptations to do or be otherwise.
We talked the entire time to the airport which is not a long ride from the Vegas strip. When we got out he unloaded my bags, carefully, and he shook my hand thanking me for my business and told me “May God Bless you”.. well I was blessed in that moment to find someone who truly expresses the demeanor of Christ in what appeared to me with limited expose in every aspect of his life…. what a peace he had and I told him before I turned to walk away “God has blessed you” .. .he smiled and I smiled because we knew what each other knew….. Sometimes blessings come in un-expecting ways..
