What Kind of Medicine is That, Mama?

Back when we were going to church in-person, a little girl in the pew behind us on Sunday was (how do I say this nicely?) not a regular church-goer. 

She was fidgety.  She was bouncy.  She was bored.  She played video games with the volumn at a pretty high level.  She wanted to talk.  She wanted to drink from the water fountain.  She wanted to sing (while the preacher was preaching - come to think of it . . . ok, just kidding).

We were into a key part of the worship service when she asked a most important question. 

"What kind of medicine is that, Mama?"

It is as sweet and innocent a question during a time of devotion to God that I have heard.  It came not from her high energy level but from the genuine curiosity of a child.  A child experiencing something new.  Understanding that it is something special.  But not understanding. 

At our church, we have the Lord's Supper (communion) as a part of every Sunday worship service.  We believe that first, Jesus, and then the church that began after His resurrection, provided us with the best understanding that we can have for the elements of a worship service.

As a result, we actively look to the New Testament about worship. Among the most important items that we can identify is that of taking the Lord's Supper.  It is at the heart of our time together.

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat:  this is my body.'

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. . ..'  When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."  - Matthew 26:27-30 (NIV)

In essence, what we see in the Lord's Supper is this: 

• This is a direct command (do this) that Jesus conducted himself about worshipping together
• It is not a "communal meal" an idea that the Apostle Paul disposes of in I Corinthians. It is a demonstration of our devotion to Jesus and obedience to him.
• It is a uniting of Christians around the world in this one act.  Worshipping with Christians in many cultures, it is very comforting to realize that, regardless of worship style differences, this one act ties us together with one another, with the "original" church of the 1st century and directly with Jesus.
• By "breaking" the bread as Jesus did and eating of it, it helps to symbolize our coming from one body - going into to all the parts of the body (or the members of each congregation).
• The cup, now usually filled with grape juice in the United States, is the symbol, as Jesus himself said, of his blood that would be shed on the cross. 
• Following this tradition - I am always touched by the juice which is, at the same time sweet and somewhat bitter.  Christ's death was horrific and bitter and we, as humans, are so sin-filled that only a sacrifice like his could allow us to enjoy a "new relationship with God."  The sweetness gives me renewed joy that His sacrifice gives me the hope of His promise of an eternal life in Heaven.

And so, as the tray, filled with little cups of grape juice passed down her row, she asked a genuine question with eternal meaning.  "What kind of medicine is that, Mama?"

How would you have answered the little girl in the pew behind me on Sunday?  She saw little cups, filled with a syrup-like drink.  Everyone was taking one of the little plastic cups and sipping from it - replacing it, empty, in the gold container. 

Is this a medicine that is sweet?  Do we, as Christians, live a life that demonstrates to people around us that being a Christian changes the way we do things in a positive way?  Are we actually living sacrifices to God?  Do we give those around us a sense of hope, honesty, love, compassion?

Or do we find the bitter?  Are we sullen in our Christianity?  Irritated that a young girl behind us in church is not acting like we want her to?  Do we hammer people over the head (incorrectly) assuming they will see the "error" of their ways and change - become what we want them to be so they fit our definition of Christian? 

My response to the family behind me Sunday was to say "hello."  Introduce myself.  Move on.  And I am ashamed.  I missed one of those "open doors" that God provides us everyday - if only we will walk through them.

As I thought about the little girl's question, frankly, I have been a little haunted.  I wish now I had mentioned her question to the family and asked if I could have a word with her about it. 

My answer should have been:

A long, long time ago, a baby named Jesus was born.  He was the son of God and He grew up to be a great man.  We call Him our Savior because He wants all of us to be able to live a good life and stay away from bad things.  A life like He did.  He wants us to love one another as much as He loved us.  When we drank the medicine, that you asked about, it was a way for us to remember that He wants us to be in Heaven with Him.  When you are baptized and become a Christian, just like Jesus did in the Bible, you will drink that same medicine - and it reminds us that we will never be really sick again.  Because Jesus loves us so much, He has already gone to Heaven - to make places for each one of us.  And we will be there with him.  One day.  That is medicine that helps make us better - forever.

That's my too wordy "should have answer."  What's yours?

Sanitized Reality

It's been a very difficult and sad time in Oklahoma the last 14 days.

We have had the eyes of the world turned to look at us - again - because of the disaster that comes from the sky in our part of the world.  Tornado damage is much worse than the television pictures can relate.  The destruction is impossible to believe until you see it with your own eyes.  As you take in the power of an EF-5 tornado, you also smell the aroma of devastation. 

This never comes across to you, sitting safely in a protected home or office.  It's a sanitized reality through the tv screen.

Gas, dust, dead animals, lumber, something burned, moldy and wet items that once had value - all ruined and worth nothing in the blink of an eye - and all contributing to an odor that is not forgettable.  If you don't live in the television coverage area then you are not likely to keep seeing the on-going challenges of recovery.  It is easy to move on the next catastrophe, become consumed by it for a few days and then move on the next.  And so on and so on . . ..

The world sees these images, absent the smells, feels badly for a time and wonders why people continue to live in Oklahoma.  It is a question actually posed on chat sites, blogs, news articles.  It is heard in conversations with people from "outside" with whom we do business or have other connections. 

I suppose even old Oklahoma storm-season veterans think about that question sometimes - although few would ever admit it.  We stay for a lot of reasons.  For some, it's where home has always been.  Others, moved here and found it a good place for business.  Oklahoma is a place where neighbors pitch in to help.  Frankly, if you ever have a serious problem where you just need a helping hand, Oklahoma is a good place for you to be. 

It gets me thinking, though, about whether it is worth it to stay?

You know, even as clean up was starting, more storms hit.  Hail.  Rain.  Lightening.  More tornado threats.  Just a few days ago another series of awful tornadoes hit - coupled with flooding rains.  Taking more lives.  Destroying more.  Wearing us down with warnings, watches and threats.  There is a storm fatigue taking over in many places.  There is more on tap for us this week. 

And we don't even have the last one cleaned up yet.

So why do we stay?  What is here?

Could it be the fact that before the tornadoes were even finished in their destruction, there were churches mobilizing to help.  First they called for prayer.  Then they called for action.  Churches of all backgrounds - all faiths - working alongside each other in an effort of . . . relief.

I think it is and, perhaps, that is what I have been inspired about more than anything in the face of disaster.  It's the faith that people put in God and in each other. 

We hear a lot, from people outside of Oklahoma, a lot of ridiculing the faith that inspires us.  Ricky Gervais, the creator of "The Office," tweeted:

Praying for something but not doing anything to make it happen has the same effect as writing to Santa & not letting mummy read the letter.

He even pushed a thought in his Twitter account:  #ActuallyDoSomethingForOklahoma

I don't know anything about the man except that I have enjoyed his tv show over the years.  I can't tell you what he sees or knows.  Not even if he has ever been to Oklahoma to feel the palpable sense that here - prayer, churches, faith - does become real action.  Maybe he knows this passage from the Book of James and maybe he doesn't.  But it fits his idea - one that has sparked controversy because it is being read as "hating" those who say they are "praying for Oklahoma."  But he is right:

^14-17 Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

¹⁸ I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
^19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? (James 2:14-20, The Message).

We don't have churches that just meet on Sundays to lift prayers that God may help us and consider that "good."  In Oklahoma, our faith drives us to show compassion, to give a helping hand, to give blood and money and food and water, to take time off from paid work because fellow Oklahomans need help.  Right now.  Not when it is convenient.

Most interestingly, for someone, like Gervais, who sees us from an outside perspective, all kinds of churches and beliefs (which might disagree in some theological way) are working side-by-side.  Churches of Christ, Baptists, Mennonites, Methodists, atheists - all can be found working with each other in the common bond of helping our hurting neighbors.  We know, all too truthfully, that we could be next in needing that same coming together.

That's the reality on the ground in Oklahoma.  From the time weather forecasters begin to warn us to be "weather aware," we take action.  We check in with our family and neighbors to be sure they know it could be rough.  We pray that the damage might be slight or that the storm might not be as bad as believed.  We pray for strength to overcome the reality of disaster - that we might know how to help - that our prayers may become the actions of our hands.

TV makes the disasters look cleaner than they are.  It allows people to make judgments that they are in no position to make.  To criticize and to demonize those who are doing the best they can in a hard and tough situation. 

The sanitized reality gives those people the clean conscious to say whatever they like about us.

Those of us living in the disaster zones know the truth - the faith of our neighbors and the actions caused by that faith make this a great place to live.  Because we know we are not going through all of this alone.

Empowering or Enabling?

 
Pretty awful, isn't it?  It is hard to believe that parents actually believe that, since their children lose their baby teeth, this is the way it happens. 



This is NOT what children's teeth are supposed to look like.  Ever.

Yet, this is a typical occurrence across Oklahoma.  We see this nearly every single day.

Let me step back.

I serve as the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Dental Foundation.  The ODF is a great non-profit that works to eliminate barriers to oral health care for Oklahomans.  Literally traveling the state in mobile dental units, our program, MobileSmiles Oklahoma, is in partnership with Delta Dental of Oklahoma Oral Health Foundation. 

We try to get to as many communities, schools, churches, other non-profits - sometimes even the middle of a field - to make sure that we are reaching out to people who need oral health care and, for a variety of reasons, can't see a dentist.  We try to find a way to get to as many people as we can, offer them care and education, then move on to the next place.

MobileSmiles serving patients in Grandfield, Oklahoma

We are truly helping people, especially children, who are at the mercy of their parents taking them to a dentist.  I use the term mercy carefully.  Because what we see is that parents, many who suffer with oral health pain themselves, believe decay and pain are just the way they have to live.  So, until we demonstrate to parents and caregivers that mouths should not look like the picture above and that mouths should not hurt, we are reliant on parents to decide that a dental visit is important. 

We also have programs to help those with mental health and substance abuse problems (but are on their way to recovery) and women who are trying to get their lives back in order after being incarcerated.  MobileSmiles Oklahoma is trying to get to every part of the state where there are people with oral health needs.  And we take care of them at no charge to the patient.  Ever.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with many non-profits.  Some are focused on health issues, some education, others nutrition, still more on safety and raising healthy children.  Over all of this time, I've seen something that really gets me thinking. 

Is the work of non-profits helping the people that we intend to help or is it creating a circumstance where we enable people to continually make poor choices?

It is a difficult, but important, question for non-profits and churches. 

For instance, several years ago, I was the Executive Director of a statewide non-profit called Safe Kids Oklahoma.  Safe Kids was the only non-profit in the state which worked to prevent the number one killer of Oklahoma's children - unintentional injury.  Safe Kids Oklahoma provided cars seats to those who needed them, bike helmets for kids who went through rider safety programs, smoke detectors for houses with children in them. 

This idea of enabling bad choices hit hard at Safe Kids.  We advertised that we would distribute and install car seats on a first-come-first-served basis.  Cars would line up hours in advance.  The car seats we distributed cost Safe Kids approximately $59 per seat (at the time) and were provided at no cost to the family.  Many times, we were in the parking lot of a WalMart (a store which reportedly sells car seats) for the distribution event.  As we got to a car and prepared to properly install a new car seat for the child, we would be forced to move $100 or more worth of beer and cigarettes (just purchased from WalMart - which is also reported to sell car seats for less than $59) out of the way so that the child could be made safe.

We just had to get comfortable with the realization that the caregiver was at least willing to give the child a chance at safety by going through the Safe Kids process of installing the seat. 

But the question is burning to be answered - were we simply encouraging the parent to NOT spend money in keeping their own child safe by giving away the seat?  They had enough disposable income for "vices," in fact, far in excess of the cost of keeping their child safe.  Yet they chose not to do that and instead use their money to intoxicate themselves. 

Did we empower a family to be proactively safer for their child or did we enable them to keep making bad decisions (like not having a child safety seat in the first place)?

We wrestle with that question for MobileSmiles as well.

Many days we pull the MobileSmiles unit up to a school parking lot and treat children who have not seen a dentist and who have a dental need.  All that we ask is for the parent to fill out a permission to treat form and our volunteer dentist will help their child.  Amazingly, that is often too much to ask.  There are days were we have to cancel a visit to a location because not enough parents have returned the permission to treat form. 

We are told that someone needs to call the family and remind them to fill out the form.  In some communities (even in Tulsa and Oklahoma City) the only way to get the forms returned is for someone to literally go door-to-door to get the permission.  Permission for a child to receive necessary - and free - care.  It seems absurd to me that dentists are ready to provide free care, the MobileSmiles facility is on-site with staff and support ready to treat but someone actually has to go knock on the door of a hurting child to get a caregiver to respond to the offer of help.

This raises a question that we have to work our way through.  Are we making it so that a parent does not even need to take responsibility for getting needed dental care by pulling into the school to provide that care? 

They don't have to take off of work.  They don't have any cost. 

Are we empowering the child to be free of dental pain or the parent who wants their child to be cared for or are we enabling the caregiver to ignore the obvious needs of the child and wait until someone shows up at school to "fix" the problem?

I believe these are vital questions for non-profits and churches to ask of their programs.  Do we really help our clients "be better" or do we create an environment in which they come to realize that someone else will provide the solution to their problem?

With MobileSmiles Oklahoma, we are helping the children who we see.  Because of what we do, fewer children miss school, more children live without pain and they begin to know what oral health means for them.  For those other groups that we help - we see that we are making a difference in their lives, too.  Women who have been in prison already have many strikes against them in getting a job and keeping out of a situation that would return them to state custody.  With proper oral health care: cleanings, extractions, in some cases dentures, we can positively affect them and get them a chance at a better life. 

For all of those patients who can't get to a dentist on their own - what are we creating?
Empowerment or are we creating a situation where people only wait to be treated?

It's a non-profit and church dilemma.  Let's hope we answer it right.

What Would You Do If . . .?

Is the love of money the root of all evil or is money a tool that helps us accomplish many good things?  Is it both?

I would like to find a way to engage in genuine discussion.  So, if this gets you thinking, please respond.  I won't let it get (too) personal if you participate. 

If I had a million dollars (I'd be rich - according to the Bare Naked Ladies) - what is your answer?

What would you do if . . . you were given a $100 bill?

You know, a Benjamin.  A C-Note.

Very often, I see situations where I think "if I only had the money to help, then I would . . .."  Do what?  Would I give money?  Would I use the money to purchase something and give it away?  Would I find a way to help that does not involve cash at all?

I think that, as Americans, we see a need and we desire to fix it.  Often times, to our surprise, the people we are trying to help didn't know that they needed any.  They don't see a problem at all.  This is especially the case, I have seen, in other cultures when North Americans enter the picture because we desire to make things "better."

Better usually means more like the United States.

Does that make me sound unpatriotic?

I hope not.  I believe the US has been a great example to the rest of the world of the hope that comes from principles of human rights being derived, not from man or government, but from our Creator.  While we are not perfect, our striving to fulfill the belief that "all men are created equal" is a powerful force for good in the world.

So, we try to make things "better" by making them like us.

To our surprise, that doesn't always improve things.  It results in loss of culture, of a singular vision of the world which is not (always) healthy.  If we are honest, the American way is not the only, best way. 

Which gets me to my question. 

If I gave you $100 in response to my question, just handed you a C-note, told you that you had to use it to help someone else, how would you use the money? 

Would you limit yourself to only the $100? 

Would you involve others in your decision?

Is there already something, someone or someplace that you have in mind you would like to see benefit from the money?

Would you use the money for another purpose that ends up helping?

I ask this for a specific reason.  In a recent meeting, this was a topic of discussion and several in the group said that they didn't really know anyone they could help with $100.  I was kind of surprised that there weren't many ideas popping into the heads of those around the table about how it could be used for good.  After all, the people I was talking with are very kindhearted and generous - when they are presented an opportunity to help.

What happens if we have to be on the lookout for ways to help other people?

Do we actually keep our eyes open to those in need or do we wait to hear about some need and then respond?  Is there, essentially, any difference?  I'm not sure.

What I am sure is this - there are those in need everywhere we look.  There are non-profits delivering care all around us.  There are churches that are reaching way beyond their walls to help hurting people.

On mornings when we realize that we have run out of breakfast material at our house, I will make a quick drive to the nearby McDonalds.  I am, every time, amazed at the number of children standing in front of rather sketchy motels, with their backpacks, waiting for the bus.  The motel is their home, for now.  There is a deep sadness that seeps into me - realizing these children come home to this reality.

I have worked with a church that actually meets in a park because that is where the homeless men and women of that part of town gather.  They have a sermon, they sing songs, they pray.  They provide food and warm(er) clothes for those who arrive.  A friend who works within the church tells me that he no longer averts his eyes when he sees a person on the street - but looks them in the eye and tells them about the church services - and gives them a hope for salvation from the life they are living. 

The challenge of what to do with money, how we use it, how we hang on to, whether it is friend or foe, has long been an issue.  Jesus spoke openly and often about money.  The Bible is clear that money can build up and tear down - all in the same person.  

I thought I would let Johnny Cash give you a quick thought of the power of money with the song, "A Satisfied Mind."  Lyrics are powerful and listed below.

 So tell me.  You've just been given $100 to do good.

What do you do with it?

I hope you'll share your ideas.

A Satisfied Mind"                                                            

(originally by Porter Wagoner) 

How many times have
You heard someone say
If I had his money
I could do things my way

But little they know
That it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten
With a satisfied mind

Once I was winning
In fortune and fame
Everything that I dreamed for
To get a start in life's game

Then suddenly it happened
I lost every dime
But I'm richer by far
With a satisfied mind

Money can't buy back
Your youth when you're old
Or a friend when you're lonely
Or a love that's grown cold

The wealthiest person
Is a pauper at times
Compared to the man
With a satisfied mind

When my life has ended
And my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones
I'll leave there's no doubt

But one thing's for certain
When it comes my time
I'll leave this old world
With a satisfied mind

How many times have
You heard someone say
If I had his money
I could do things my way

But little they know
That it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten
With a satisfied mind



It's Time for A Rest

There are many times in our lives that it seems our day would be much better if we could only pull the covers back over our head, snuggle in a little more and rest a while longer. 

Lately, there seem to be more of those days.

From an attack on young Israelis to the shooting at the midnight showing of the latest Batman movie to unrelenting violence in US cities there are many days when it does not seem that it is worth it for us to get out of bed.

Why would we?

The world is a terrible place. I fear for my life.  I fear for my children.  I fear for my friends.  I fear that I fear too much.

Facebook is full of comments, from friends of mine of all stripes, that rage against - what?  Most of what is highlighted is made up, fake arguments that come from that reliable source of information, the world wide web.  Clearly, if it is on the internet, then it must be true, right?  It must be put onto Facebook, it needs to be Twitted.  Or is that Tweeted? 

I have gay friends and female friends who are convinced that the GOP is coming to burst into their bedrooms and forcefully stop them from . . . whatever.  The list seems to go on and on.  I have conservative friends who truly believe that government troops are positioned just across the border (maybe somewhere in Kansas) to burst into their homes and take their. . . whatever.

Right now, our nation seems to be getting into a white hot rage of anger over the direction we are headed.  We have lost the sense that, as Americans, we are all in this together.  That we live in a place that is unique among nations and is a place we should be able to agree is remarkable.  That others have long harbored a desire to become American.  About what other part of the world do people actually dream about living in a country, besides the US?  But within our own people the anger grows.

This has really started me thinking. 

It seems to me now would be a good time for many of us to take a little rest.  Slow down from our instantaneous forwarding of emails and Facebook posts.  Spend some time reading more than a couple of headlines and jumping to conclusions - irrational or otherwise. 

Instead, unplug yourself for a time and read a novel.  Pick up a biography of someone worth admiring and understand that they led, oftentimes, difficult lives.  What is amazing, when one reads biography and historical books, is how much the problems sound like ones we have today. 

We can take comfort in that fact.  One of the great problems with each generation, often noted, is that it believes the history of the world started on the day they were born.  Shortsighted?  Of course.  Which is why others of us must call each other out and remind ourselves that problems have always existed. 

Politicians have always lied.
Taxes have always been too high.
There is always some outside threat to our safety.
Jobs are always in jeopardy.
Children are always getting into trouble.
Parents always are afraid they are a burden to their children.
Government always intrudes.
Businesses always just want to make another buck.

You'll find that in our history and it puts me at ease to realize that we will find an answer to the problems we have in this country. 

We will find it by reaching out and directly helping someone else.  Through our churches, through our volunteer efforts, through our schools or with our neighbors. 

We will find it by getting off of the all caps "warnings" of our friends that THE (FILL-IN-THE-BLANK) are trying to take away these rights.  By reading that this has always been a belief and our nation always comes through stronger. 

It happens because we put our beliefs in God and our churches, in non-profits and our neighbors to heal our towns, ours schools, our children, our families.  As we do that, we also bring about healing for our nation. 

Today, won't you take a moment and NOT react?  Stop forwarding, passing along, forcing upon your "friends" the latest phony disaster that is about to move like a tsunami over our nation. 

Take a moment to reach out to help someone else.  Remove their suffering.  Give them hope and encouragement.  As THAT sweeps across the nation, we will see our nation rebound.

Picking Up Strangers After Dark

What do you do?  Seriously.  What do you do? 

I had just finished a marathon meeting at our church - talking about mission work.  Talking, literally, for hours, about how to help reach those in need around the world.  Hours.  Of talk. 

It's very dark.  It's 11:30 at night (our meeting talking about helping people started at 6:00 p.m.).  As I approach a very poorly lit intersection in a heavily wooded area, I see a young man waving his arms - clearly needing help.  Car hood is lifted.  Car windows are broken out and covered with plastic sheeting.  Car has been used hard and beaten up. 

What would you do?  Let me tell you, the conversations running through my head were really going crazy!
"If you stop, he might have a gun"
"If you don't stop, aren't you forgetting the lesson of the Good Samaritan?"
"I have a family at home, what about the gun he (must have) tucked into his pants?  He'll make me drive to the house and will hold us hostage."
"Didn't you just spend hours talking about the theory of helping people?  What if this is God's way of reminding you there are people to be helped just around the corner?"
"Man up!  Stop and see if you can help - just don't roll the window down very far (as if a partially opened window will stop a bullet (from the gun that must be hidden in his waistband!)."
Then, the clearest conversation of all came into my mind:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ”  Matthew 25:31-46

So I stopped.  I rolled down the window - all the way.  Got out of my car. 

What happened?

He needed help.  Car broken down.  Dark part of the road.  He said he was scared because you never know what kind of a person might stop at that time of night.  He is African-American, from Detroit, with felony convictions.  One person had stopped and promised to return but had not.  Most people sped away from him. 

As we talked, it was clear he had a troubled past.  Said that Oklahoma actually was offering him hope for a future.  He is a cook at an area golf course and so he moved into a drab motel along the interstate, close to work because he could walk if he needed to (this wasn't the first time his car had broken down). 

A couple of things he said really hit home hard.

Really got me thinking.

He said it is really hard to be in his situation.  His housing cost $205 per week.  He makes about $500 per week if he works every day.  He is falling farther behind every day.  How many of the people around us are "working poor?"  Here is a guy that is not lacking in desire to work - even moving closer to his workplace to walk if he had to be able keep his job.  He is not lazy, he is not slacking.  Yet, it seems he keeps taking some "hits to the head."  He, in the few minutes I was with him, seemed to epitomize the "hand-up not hand-out" idealism.  He wants to work, change his life, become a self-sustaining person and yet the differential between his earning ability (right now) and the basic cost of living is a very fine margin.  For him, there is no room for any more mistakes. 

What a terrifying way to live.  And he told me of many of the others who live in the same place with similar stories.

Then, he asked what made me stop to help.

What made me stop?  The voice that came through most clearly was that of Jesus asking what I did for someone in need.  So I told him.

I told him that he looked like a young man who needed some care.  That I had just finished a meeting at my church - and he asked another question:  "can you tell me about your church? I'm new here and I know I need a church to help keep me walking the right path."

So I did.

We talked about how he got into trouble (drugs/women - not necessarily in that order), what he was doing to trying to stay out of trouble and how, with his history and current circumstances - trouble seems easy to get into.  It's a very tough life for a young may trying to come back from bad decisions.

In the meeting at church that I was coming from, we talked about how to help introduce people around the world to the loving word of God, to the saving grace of Jesus Christ and to a life of hope.  How much would we spend in this part of the world or that?  How many people would go here or there.

God opened the door for me to all of those things by picking up a stranger after dark.  It cost nothing and could provide him with everything. 

Sometimes, to make an impact, we have to roll our windows all the way down and make the offer to help.