Story Behind the Song
I used to live in Savannah Georgia, and every morning on my way to and from work, I passed an old beggar man who talked to himself. Every morning he had a new piece of cardboard sign hanging around his neck, and it always said positive things like..."Peace","Love", "Miracles are Everyday", and "Jesus Saves". In fact, in the whole two years I had never seen the old man out unless he had some really positive message on his chest, and one morning, while sitting at a red light in the rain... I saw the old man standing on a street corner in front of a fast food place, wearing a sign which read...
"I'm starving and will work for food."
I then took note of the restaurant sign above his head which read...
"Now hiring. All shifts. No experience neccessary. Apply within."
I got a kick out of that, so I pulled into the drive, and offered to buy the man some breakfast.
We sat at the table eating Sunriser biscuits, and I asked him quite frankly if her could read. To which he took great offense. I apologized, explaining that I meant no injustice by the remark I just wanted to know if he could read or not. He said that he could, so I asked him to read the sign out front for me.
As he read the sign, a slow grin spread across his old leathery face.
He reached out his hand across the table and shook mine.
"My name is Profit...with an "f" and not a "PH" ". He said. I laughed, and we talked the morning away.
Profit's parents hadn't been very well off, and his grandmother had to help raise him the best she could. Profit grew to believe in God and the American way, and when Vietnam hit, he enlisted...leaving behind a new wife, and a budding young business.
While he was off at war, his wife gave birth to a baby girl which Profit had not even known she was carrying when he enlisted, and his wife turned his business into a fairly good sized corporation while he was away.
He returned home to his wife with post-traumatic-flashback-syndrome, and was heavily medicated for the first year that he was home. Slowly he began to regain his composure through the medication and the company, and his wife went to staying at home with their daughter who was now about eight years old.
Profit's company was about to make a merger with IBM, so he had asked his wife to bring their daughter straight from ballet practice to their favorite restaurant where they could celebrate as a family.
His wife and daughter were blindsided by a truck that day and killed on their way to the restaurant. Profit said that as he identified them on the scene of the accident, he asked got "Why Me?" to which he got an immediate, verbal answer..."Why not?"
he said he had been talking to God ever since. He sold all of his belongings, gave the money to charities, got disability for his condition, and began spreading the word of God, with no glory for himself.
I was touched, and I felt very sorry for the old man, but he instructed me not to. He said that God was more important than how he looked, or what he had in this world. He said also he would give me a piece of wisdom before we parted ways.
This was back in 1991, and he told me that by the year 2000, cigarettes would cost more than $3.00 a pack, we'd be paying more than a dollar twenty for a gallon of gasoline, and that people would still have what they wanted, before they concerned themselves with what they needed. He said we would have a snake-eyed president whose desire for flesh would shame the nation. This president would be succeeded by a complete idiot and that when this happened, I would remember him.
So... I'm sitting on my couch watching George Bush's inaugural speech, and the whole encounter just came rushing back. This song is for Profit the Prophet
Lyrics
Profit the prophet
{Verse#1}
They named him Profit on the day he was born.
His parents were poor people,
They were poor to the bone.
They called him good fortune,
And they took him on home,
To a shack in the city
That was battered and worn.
Profit's name meant money, yawl
But the word, it dug much deeper...
His daddy was drunk, his mama was lazy,
But Profit, he was a keeper.
{Chorus}
He said shake your bibles,
You go give your speeches
You can run down heaven's sky
Profit can show you what a real profit is
before you gotta die.
So let him lay down the law of Jerusalem
He'll bring us all as one.
You gotta long long way to go prophet man,
before your prophecy is done.
{Verse#2}
He had it all, money and wealth,
but he had to let it go.
Knowing the things that he knew inside
Posessions troubled him so.
People were dying in the streets
Lord, every single day
Babies were starving,
The thieves were thriving,
And Profit had a LOT to say!
{Repeat Chorus}
{Verse#3}
Now in rags, he's on a street corner
A cardboard sign in hand
A cup full of pride and a sickness inside
To most he's a ragged old man.
But he was a prophet advice in full,
And he preached and ranted and raved.
But no one was saved,
Or read the words on his sign
That said simply...
"Jesus Saves".
{Repeat Chorus}
He said shake your bibles,
You go give your speeches,
Go run down heaven's sky....
You gotta long long way to go
You poor old man...
Before you're allowed to die.
The end.
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