:: greatness is a life well-lived ::

When's your next meal?

The lone car parked in the lot conjured up suspicion from many people this morning. Tilted to one side, spray-paint deco in an old-style black and white police car, the car did not signify any sort of respectability. I drove past it hardly noticing (people often park their broken-down cars in the large athletic center parking lot where I park my car for work), intent on getting back into the swing of work and life in Michigan. It's my first day back after an amazing holiday and mission work over the pond at my "second home" in Sheffield.

A few hours later I got a voicemail on my work phone from my brother, saying that he had a flat tire and was parked out in the lot outside my work, being hassled by security thinking he was a vagrant. I laughed out loud, realizing that it was MY brother's suspicious and junkie car that I passed this morning. He got a flat tire last night in the middle of a huge thunderstorm and parked and slept here, knowing I'd come to work in the morning and he was a lot safer here than in downtown GR. He told me the university security guard seemed to think he was homeless and gruffly asked him when his next meal was and treated him rather rudely, telling him to leave rather than offering assistance.

It's quite laughable, but it also makes me think...I work at a Christian university. It seems quite a contrast that we would act so contradictory to the heart of Christ. What if the vagrant who parked his junkie car really was homeless and in need of more than help with a flat tire? Would we be fearful and disturbed and rudely treat such a one? Or offer help and a meal and the love of Christ? I thoughtlessly passed the car this morning, but what if I had seen a ragged man crawling out of the car? Would I have shared a hot cup of coffee, bicuits and an apple with him as I did with my brother? I think, instead, I might have felt fear and annoyance.

I am just as guilty. Lord, forgive us for being so full of pride and thinking better of ourselves for our nice cars, clean clothes, more than enough food, and comfort of grace. Stir us to deeper love of our neighbors and the sharing of the grace we have received from You.

posted by FaithChristine @ 10:00