A few years ago, winter temperatures across North America plummeted. The Ozark Mountains were no exception. Daytime reached only a few degrees above zero (fahrenheit). As temperatures fell, the price of propane, which we use too heat our home, skyrocketed. I was one of many who couldn’t afford it. We went from Christmas until the spring with only a couple electric heaters.
Although I remember waking up in the middle of many nights, shivering in the cold, we didn’t ask for government assistance, nor did we ask help of any church. God took care of us. I was suffering from cancer that winter, but I was months away from diagnosis. Miraculously, our water pipes never froze, we suffered no excessive flu bugs or other viruses. We dressed warmly and cuddled under blankets, and toughed it out. I prayed a lot. God protected us.
At the end of January, business took my wife and I to St. Louis for four days where we stumbled upon a dozen or so homeless men and women living under a freeway near downtown. We didn’t have much, but we were able to help them in a very small way. I realized then that, comparatively, we were well off.
I was scared that winter, but God is in my side. Even if God had let me freeze to death, or even if I would have lost my life to cancer, I would not want anyone to think that God had failed me. We will all die someday, but it is not the end. Death is but a beginning and this life a mere foreshadow of that which is to come. A few years of suffering in this life is a mere wisp of time compared to eternity with my Creator. I no longer fear; not like I once did.
Let those who fear the Lord now say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
I called on the Lord in distress;
The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
The Lord is for me among those who help me;
Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.
It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
– Psalm 118:4-8
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For two decades Bell Telephone, and later AT&T, promoted themselves through a campaign with the slogan, “Reach out and touch someone.” One particular spot shows a sad clown calling his mother and transforming into a happy clown, followed by toddlers smiling when they hear a voice on the phone, and a grandmother calling her family, and a marching band crowded around a phone booth to speak with a bandmate who broke a leg. The point was that reaching out to loved ones can change their lives, at least if you do so over a Bell Telephone line.
The point is a valid one: we need to reach out and touch people. We’ve always had outerunrivaled in society. Victims of contagious diseases, the homeless, the mentally ill, the aged, the jobless, the working poor… are all left behind in post-Christian America.
There were no untouchables in Jesus’s mind. He ate dinner with folks considered the dregs of society. He made disciples of tax collectors. His best friends were crude fishermen. He accepted praise and offerings of women of ill repute. He asked assistance of a woman who had had several husbands and carried on affairs. He touched a leper.
If we want to live like Jesus… If we want to be Christ-like… If we want to reach the lost, then we too need to reach out and touch those that may seem untouchable. We need to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, shelter the homeless, find help for the mentally ill, spend quality time with the aged, minister to widows and orphans, and visit the imprisoned.
We need to offer a tender, loving touch to the untouchables.
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“Stranded,” the sign read. Scribbled on a piece of cardboard box, it continued something like this: “food. shelter. Anything will help.” The young woman holding the sign, sitting between a parking lot and the street looked like she had been crying. She looked frightened, like she’d been fighting off wolves. She was desperate.
I’m one of those guys who cannot pass by a homeless person, a beggar, someone in need, without helping. When I first got married, I also picked up every hitchhiker I saw. My wife cured me of that. I can’t give much, but. I give as I can, when I can, to whom I can.
This day was different. Uncharacteristically, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t; I was late and in traffic at a busy intersection. This woman’s tears, though, broke my heart. Still, I couldn’t stop.
Her face haunted me all day. I failed her. No, I failed God. I gave her nothing because I was too busy. Running late. Too much to do. Not enough time. People waiting on me. Too many irons in the fire. Couldn’t hold up traffic… You get my point.
All I could do was say a prayer. “Send someone to help her, God.”
“That’s why I routed you past her, so you would see her and help her,” He said.
“I couldn’t. Send someone who has more time.”
“Time,” said God, “is the only thing that you, my children, are given in equal amounts. You all have the same amount of time in a day.”
—–
I will never forget How scared she looked, how alone. How helpless. Most of us, myself included, are one or two paychecks away from a situation similar to hers.
Lord, help us to make better use of the time you’ve given us. Help us not to be so scared when the wolves are howling outside our doors. Help that woman, wherever she is today. Send someone to her not quite so calloused as I was that day.
]]>Sounds are rushing
Noises crushing
Telling us this
Telling us thatToo many voices
Too many choices
Better not miss
Better stand patGood Shepherd, wolves circle round.
Can’t you hear our fearful sound?
We cry out in the dark of night.
Lead us into the daylight.
For, we are lost without your love.– S Hager 2016