Every man needs a sensei. Mine is Greg Hicks.
At a point in my life when I didn’t know the ropes, Greg taught me the ropes. He didn’t lecture, and he didn’t make me feel small for not knowing. He just showed me, patiently, the way a good teacher does, the way I suspect Jesus did with a boatload of fishermen who kept getting it wrong. I was a slow student. Greg was a patient man. It worked out.
These days you can find Greg at Magic City Melting Pot, a Birmingham thrift store full of secondhand clothing and household goods. It’s a fitting place for him. A thrift store is a building full of things somebody decided were done, and every one of them gets a second chance. Greg understands second chances. He gave me one.
Greg is a strong Christian man, and he once handed me a verse I’ve kept ever since: God has plans for me to succeed. Coming from Greg, I believed it, which is more than I can say for most of the advice I’ve been given.
So if you’re in Birmingham, go see him at Magic City Melting Pot. Buy a lamp. Buy a jacket. Say hello to Greg. You might leave with more than you came for. I did.
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17
— JC
