I intended to stay and work on my laptop after having coffee at Barnes&Noble with a good friend today, but the place was full (at least the good chairs were taken). So I headed across the street to the gigantic Starbucks where everyone from my church hangs out, only to find it equally packed. "I just need one of those plush chairs vacant if I'm going to get any work done!"
So I head to the much smaller Starbucks (can we get some independent coffee houses in Cumming already?) on the other side of the highway. To my joy and relief, I find four empty plush chairs next to power outlets AND I still have my tea from the B&N so I'm good.
I open my laptop and start procrastinating. I end up on my old college friend Brad Hendrickson's Facebook profile, and I click on his religious views. The link leads me to a passage in Matthew, the one about loving/serving "the least of these."
A half hour later a guy walks in and sits a couple chairs down from me. He's 40ish, scruffy, has long hair, worn clothes, and looks possibly-not-homeless. The older woman he sits next to asks him to move, and he moves to the chair next to me. "Gettin' bumped?" I say. "Yeah..." he replies and cracks open a copy of the Bible.
We start chatting (him mostly, if you can believe that). Half an hour later I hardly know anything about this guy except that he talks a lot for being so quiet (I could barely hear him 30% of the time). He's very vague, but I have a decent feeling about him. He is making his way north to the mountains, and I offer to give him a ride. As I'm packing my laptop and wondering what I just committed to (and if I'm reading scripture wrong), the older woman he was sitting next to before gives me a worried look and shakes her head with concern.
I walk out of the Starbucks and one of my best friends calls. I'm like "Call me back SOON!" (The guy was still inside). We get in my car and hit the road. He talks the whole way and rolls a cigarette. I drop him off at a grocery store a few exits north of where I live. He was thankful, and - now that I'm home safe - I'm glad I helped him out.
So why was this such a big deal? I share the story not because I think I performed some great virtue, but because I was scared straight. It felt like I was taking a big risk. If I had a wife and kids I may not have given the guy a ride.
But it wasn't like he was walking down the highway. & he didn't ask for anything. I offered him a ride. I had trouble finding hitchhiker statistics on the internet, but this guy wasn't even hitchhiking! There are plenty of serial killers who read the Bible and weirdos who know the right lingo to use in the Bible Belt, but this guy seemed legit, and as far as I know (no knife pulled on me), he was.
I wonder often about Matthew 10:16 "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." In my experience it seems many Christians try to be wise as serpents 95% of the time and, on the outside chance that someone meets all their criteria, they will take a risk and help someone in need.
I don't want to be stupid, but I would rather step out in faith and love when I think I should than risk turning away someone genuinely needy because of fear. I don't think I was stupid today.
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i don't think you were stupid either. i think we rarely take risks with people who are "other" whether they are wealthier or poorer than we are. i made lunch for my cleaning lady yesterday and we talked for hours and I taught her some English. She's Ukranian, so the conversation was in broken Czech/very broken English. I thought about how most people wouldn't do this (breaking the employer/employee lines? or maybe class lines that are there but we do not recognize upon principle as Americans). Anyway, I think that as we listen for the Holy Spirit prompting it is good to move outside what feels safe to us (with wisdom) and engage with people who come from a different place. are you close to london?
ReplyDelete--talitha