Everyday Black Matters
As I was running errands this morning several cars & myself passed an old handicapped man who was clearly stuck in the middle of a large mini-mall parking lot riding a motorized scooter trying to push it along with his cane.
His left hand & left arm was shriveled. His left foot had a huge 7 inch block on the bottom of it. His right foot was so big & swollen that he had only a sock over it. (It’s currently 4 degrees outside). His clothes were filthy. He was clearly very poor.
As I passed him by in my “busyness” the Holy Spirit immediately convicted me. I just gave a talk last night to Grand Valley State students on the passage of the “good Samaritan” in Luke 10:25-37. I realized that I was going to be like the Levite in that story if I kept going.
The Levite was the Priest, he was the “holy man of God,” the one who was supposed to care about the beaten, robbed, left for dead Jew on the Jericho road but he had a God-will-take-care-of-it attitude.
I kept driving. I said a prayer for him. And then I remembered a book I bought Ransom for Christmas. It’s called, How Does God Make Things Happen? Every page asks that question on the left & on the right is an example of people doing good: feeding the poor, sharing, helping one another, etc. At the end of the book, it culminates with said question & in big bold letters it says,
How does God make things happen?
WITH YOUR HANDS!
That’s how God makes things happen.
Recently after reading that book to him I looked Ransom dead in his eyes & said, “Ransom, this book is right. If we don’t love the poor, if we don’t serve them, if we don’t move our resources towards meeting their needs were going to have really missed the point, you know?” He looked at me and sweetly said, “okay, Mama.”
(As a side note: I was reminded again of how excited I am for the day Ransom is old enough to go with me & volunteer at the local Gospel Mission. Growing up in poverty myself -well, by American’s standards, not by the world’s standards- I benefited so much by being around poor people & being faced with the grim reality of what a large percentage of the world lives.
I will make it my life’s efforts to put my kids in situations where they meet the poor, know the poor, love poor people, interact with them, give them their money, feed them. I want to keep some thing that is so near & dear to God’s heart in front of them at all times. I could never live with myself if I raise a spoiled American brat who thinks he’s deprived if he doesn’t have the latest this or that. I will do my best to cultivate my kids hearts for poverty, racial & social justice. That’s more important than anything to me in regards to how I raise Ransom & Rhys).
Back to the story:
Am I for-real or what? My reality is if I don’t turn around & help this man everything I preach about who God is and how God loves the poor and goes out of his way for them and my so-called love for the poor is horse-crap. Usually my fear with helping people who need rides on the side of the road is that they will be some sort of psycho killer. But clearly I was in no danger as this man was quite handicapped and indeed could not even stand up straight.
I turned around.
I got out.
I started pushing him across the street to the hair shop where he said he needed to recharge the batteries of his motorized scooter. A kind woman pulled in a large school bus stopped to help us. (At the time I felt like she was my angel. I could have never done it alone). With a significant amount of effort we loaded him and the scooter into the bus. Took him to the hair shop. We loaded him out. Got him back in his chair. He thanked us profusely & we left. It took literally no more than 15 out of my day and yet I almost considered not doing it.
Good for nothing Christians! I loathe our religious activities that we love to do yet hesitate -like I did- to do the things that really matter in this world.
It was not a good deed. Just like the “good” Samaritan was not “good”. Though I find the good Samaritans deed to be exceptional. I mean hello? Would you pick up your sworn enemy, someone who regards you as an animal, take him to a hotel & pay his bills? I didn’t think so. Yet Jesus tells this story as if we are actually supposed to live that way. Like, all the time.
Jesus was crazy yall. Like on whole other level. His hearers at the time would have found that story that to be highly controversial.
As a Jesus follower that was not a good deed, just my reasonable service. Not even sacrificial really.
God help us.
And deal with us severely if we don’t care for the poor of the world.
(Originally posted 02.22.08) p.s. In light of the economic downturn, the number of people needing food and shelter this Christmas, and the decrease in donations —please consider joining Dave & I in giving a gift to your local shelter or Gospel Mission who typically feeds the poor on Christmas. $30, $40 bucks, that’s all I ask. God bless…
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