In Word and Deed

 Good morning and welcome to this Thursday Thought.

 A few years ago, I was in a contemplative mood one day and was thinking about some of the things I have been privileged to experience in life.  I had, I think, just turned 70 years old, and was in that kind of mood where one sort of looks over one’s life in contemplation and thanksgiving.  I decided then to start a list of things that I have experienced in life that, while not unique or extremely unusual, were things that not just everybody has the opportunity to experience.  I created a file on my computer called “Have You Ever?” and wrote my responses to that question.

Over the next weeks and months, the list grew beyond anything I had imagined.  Everything from seeing a glacier in the Arctic calve live and in person to operating a real railroad locomotive and hiking up Pikes Peak are on this list that now spans over two pages, double spaced.  And I think of one or two additional things to put on the list every so often, and have a couple in mind now, in fact.

Most of us, when we look at our lives lived, come away with the idea that we’re just another cog in the great wheel of life, and have just sort of muddled our way though the ordinary work of getting up, going to work, raising a family, shopping at the food store, and paying bills.   As I’ve looked over the list, I have come to realize that the life I’ve lived so far has been anything but routine, mundane existence.

Now that I’ve made a list of some of my accomplishments in life, the next thing for me is to understand what I just said a few seconds ago with my heart instead of just my head.  “The life I’ve lived so far has been anything but routine, mundane existence.”  I know that intellectually.  The list proves it.  But it’s really difficult for me to get past the routine…the getting up, dressing, eating, working, and so on…and fully appreciate the opportunities God has graciously given me.

And doesn’t that work on a more spiritual level as well?  We as Christians understand intellectually the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  We know about God’s plan for the redemption of mankind and the creation, the fulfillment of that plan in the person and work of Jesus, and the resulting freedom that comes with forgiveness of sin and adoption as sons and daughters of God.  We know all of that, but somehow, the full impact of that astounding truth seems to be lost on us as we muddle through our Christian lives, attending church services most Sundays, half-heartedly singing or joining in a community prayer, or taking the communion with thoughts of “what’s for lunch” instead of those thoughts and thanksgivings we ought to be having.

We go through the week in a sort of Christian living fog, compromising here and giving in there.  We have thoughts as well as words that aren’t supposed to be front and center during our days living as Christians.  We look the other way when need confronts us.  We continue to believe and spread obvious untruths…lies, if you will…about our co-workers, politicians, and anyone who doesn’t believe just like we do on a host of issues from immigration to church doctrine to inclusion and diversity.

It seems to me that it’s past time for many of us to recognize Truth when we see it…not just intellectually, but with our heart…as Webster defines the word heart…one’s innermost character, feelings, or inclination.  It’s only then, I think, when we can also more fully understand the incredible gifts and opportunities God has given us…gifts and opportunities which enable us to get the message of God to others…the message of hope, redemption, and grace…and that those to whom we give the message will have receptive hearts, at  least in part because of our genuineness of character.

To tell the message of forgiveness and freedom while harboring grudges, spreading untruth, and ignoring those in need is at the least disingenuous, and brings out our hypocritical nature for all to see.  How can we effectively speak of Jesus when we also effectively lock him out of our hearts?

It’s time for those of us who claim to be Christians to look like Christians…not the westernized, modernized, sanitized, and hypnotized version…but the genuine article…one that walks as one talks, and does as one says.  To be and do any less is, shall we say it gently…unforgiveable.

 Blessings.

 

Mary

 A couple of weeks ago, while Pat and I were on vacation, I got a text message on my phone from a woman I’ll call Mary.  Mary had never contacted me before, and got my cell number from an acquaintance of hers.  As you know, I am the primary contact at our church for benevolence needs, and Mary was needing some help, so she contacted me and sent along a photo shot of her most recent electric bill.  She needed about $150 to make a timely payment on the payment plan she had set up with the utility to settle some past due charges.

What you need to know up front is that the utility, Evergy, is willing to set up a payment plan for past-due charges in many instances, but if a payment on that plan is even one day late, the payment plan goes away, the entire amount is due at once, and disconnection comes rapidly following unless the full amount is paid quickly.

Since we were on vacation several states away, I had no way to help, and in fact my policy is to not respond to requests for help on my personal cell, because if I did, I would be getting requests all hours of every day.  I insist that those needing help come to the office for a personal chat, and that they bring a copy of whatever bill with them so that I could contact the utility to verify the need.  So, I didn’t respond to her at that time.

Once we got back to Wichita and I started back to work, I contacted Mary.  She told me that the deadline for paying the payment plan amount had passed…they had shut off her electric service, and she owed well over $700 in order to get it turned back on.  I told her we could pay up to the maximum per our guidelines…$150…on her bill, but that she would have to find other means for the rest of it.  We then visited a little more.   Here’s what I heard from her.

Mary is a caregiver for her adult, autistic, disabled son.  He can’t work, and she needs to be with her son pretty much 24-7 so she can’t work as well.  They have no transportation and walk everywhere they have to go.  She had applied for the LIEAP utility assistance funds long ago, but hasn’t heard anything from them.  She called the LIEAP offices and was told that they were so far behind that it would be another month or more before they even got to her application to consider her for help.

She has also contacted the usual utility help organizations in the metro area.  One national organization was out of funds, which is a normal response for them.  Another requires a person to get in a line on Tuesday mornings…that line forming as early as 5 AM…in order to be one of a limited number of people allowed to enter the facility to get…not help with a utility, but an appointment time on a later day to discuss one’s needs with a social worker.  Other places also gave the usual, “out of funds” story to her as she looked for assistance or didn’t return her calls.

Although her son has a disability designation, she doesn’t yet have that designation for herself, even though she applied for that status a year ago.  So, they have been trying to survive on about $900 a month, which is her son’s monthly disability check.  They have SNAP assistance, so that helps some.

And oh, by the way, had her landlord found out that her electric had been shut off due to non-payment, she and her son would have been evicted with three days notice for breach of rental contract.

I’ll stop here and tell you that what she told me about her efforts to find help match pretty much exactly with stories I’ve heard from dozens of people over the years as I’ve worked with this ministry.  I totally believe what she has told me because it does match up, almost word for word, with those stories from past encounters with many others.  This scenario plays out among the Wichita area poor literally hundreds of times a week, just as Mary described it to me, with changes only in some of the more minor points.

Well, time went on.  A little over a week later, I hadn’t heard back from Mary regarding her effort to find other funds to supplement our promised contribution.  She, however, later called the office and told me that she hadn’t been able to raise more than about $200, and had been without electricity for eight days.  We visited a little more, then hung up.  But I couldn’t get her situation out of my mind…especially the fact that had I been available in the office when she first contacted me, we might have been able to pay the payment plan amount and keep her from being disconnected.  I didn’t take that responsibility personally on my shoulders, but it did weigh on me as I closed out my work day.

In the process of my visits with Mary, I got her address.  Continuing to consider Mary’s situation concerning possible eviction, no transportation, lack of help from other organizations, and caring for a disabled son, at the end of my work day, I called my wife, explained the situation, and asked if she would accompany me to Mary’s apartment.  She agreed, and I picked her up at the agreed-on meeting place and we went to the apartment.

Mary’s apartment was on the top floor of the building on the west side.  It was sweltering hot in her apartment, and very, very dark.  She had kept the blinds closed to try to prevent the heat of the day from coming in so much.  Mary is a woman in her mid 50’s, and rather frail in appearance.   Her health overall did not look very good.  We also met her son, who appeared out of a back room in the apartment, coming to the door.  We visited more about her situation and what little progress she had made in paying the electric bill.  She still owed over $600 in overdue bills, plus now her current billing, which brought the total to over $700.

There was no way I was going to leave her and her son in that sweltering hothouse of an apartment, fearful of eviction and turned down by other organizations for help, and go home to a comfortable evening in my easy chair.  So I asked her for a copy of a bill, contacted the payment service for Evergy, and paid the entire amount owed from the church credit card.  The electric service came back on about three minutes after I had paid the bill.

Think about this.  How could she have traveled to the organization where one gets in line just to get an appointment for later in the week with no transportation and having to care for an autistic son?  Even the city bus service doesn’t run that early in the day, and the organization’s office is about 6 miles away from her apartment.

The LIEAP utility assistance program is so understaffed that the people who rely on it for help with their bills once the cold weather rule goes off in the spring can’t get that help until well into the summer…by then too late to avoid their utility being shut off due to the discontinuation of the cold weather rule.

And why does it take a year or more to process an application for federal disability benefits?  If that would have been adjudicated timely, she may well have had the funds to pay her bills.

One more thing.  Where would these people have gone had they been evicted?  How would they have moved their things with no transportation and no money?  How would they have navigated that crisis?  Have you tried to rent something in the Wichita area recently?  Do you know the cost of doing that and the things you have to do in order to just be considered for an apartment?  Those two people would have been on the street, so far down in the poverty whirlpool that they never would have seen the light of day again.

I tell you Mary’s story simply to tell you this.  There are hundreds…no, thousands…of Marys in the greater metro area.  Their stories are the same.  Their struggle to just survive the day is real.  If you have a roof over your head, food in the refrigerator, turned-on utilities, and a machine that will take you places where you want to go…with fuel in it to get you there, you are blessed beyond measure.  Rejoice in thanksgiving for those blessings, and bear in mind your responsibility to help those in need like Mary.  Then do it…fulfill that responsibility.  Blessings.

More Random Stuff

 Good afternoon and welcome to this Thursday Thought.  I thought today that I’d just do a sort of potpourri of random “stuff” that has been on my mind recently.  I haven’t done this in awhile, and it seems like a good time to get some of this out of my brain and on Facebook.

 When driving on any kind of a freeway, there are always a few people who insist on tailgating within a few feet of the car ahead of them.  It seems to me that this method of driving only causes more anxiety and stress, but doesn’t do much to get them any farther down the road.  I would think that having a good distance between you and the car in front of you would lessen the stress level and result in a better overall driving record.

 Also, when on a freeway, there are always some who insist on going at least 20 miles and hour faster than everyone else.  They weave in and out of lanes, create stressful situations for other drivers, and seem to think that driving the freeway is some kind of a game where, if they win they get some kind of prize.  I have yet to see any kind of prize given to anyone for doing this kind of driving, except for the occasional traffic citation and higher insurance rates, to say nothing of higher costs for fuel and maintenance…which doesn’t seem to me to be any kind of prize I would want.

 And speaking of driving, why is it that when a couple is on a motorcycle, the man is always driving?  Is there something wimpy about a man riding shotgun with a woman at the helm?  Is it a macho type of thing or something?  Do men who own motorcycles have to drive in order to prove their manhood?  How did that ever come about, anyway?

 We have, over the recent years, been able to take trips and vacations on a rather regular basis.  We’ve chosen to stay in motels that are associated with an international chain that is known for good service and cleanliness.  We’ve found, however, that those cleanliness and service standards are somewhat fluid, even within the corporate chain.  We’ve also found that we can know exactly what the free breakfast consists of as all of this chain’s motels and hotels seem to offer the exact same things even though the hotels are independently owned.  I wonder just how independent these places really are…

 I recently looked at my list of blocked phone numbers on my cell phone.  I was surprised that there were so many of them.  And even with the great number of blocked numbers on my list, I still receive calls from, I presume, people I don’t know and don’t want to know.  I say “presume” because I don’t answer calls from numbers that I’m not familiar with or are not in my phone book.  Phone numbers are becoming as much of an identifier as a social security number anymore.  To change one’s number often requires a lot of changing in the personal information sections of many contacts, businesses, and institutions one deals with.  Who knew some years ago that it would come to this?

 And speaking of phones, how long ago was it that someone would have given their right arms to have a phone in their car?  I can well remember being on the road a lot for a job I had in Western Kansas…knowing where all of the pay phones were in all of the little towns out there.  I well remember having a telephone “credit card” number that I could use to charge a call to my home phone, and thereby not having to put endless quarters into the pay phone to pay for the long distance call.  I often wished I could just call someone from my car and not have to stop at a pay phone or borrow a client’s phone.  Now, the world is on my hip, although I’m not so sure I’m all the better for it being that way.

 And an end note.  This week is the last week for a long-time member of our church staff.  Eric has been our worship leader here at RiverWalk since his earliest days, and has been on staff for more years than I can count.  He’s retiring this Sunday, and they’ll be moving to the Eastern seaboard in their retirement.  We wish them well, and know that the hole they leave in our RiverWalk family will never quite fill in completely.  We’ve known of their impending retirement and move for several years, but that doesn’t make this week any less difficult.  Thank you, Eric and Melody.  Blessings.

Trying Too Hard

 I was in our front yard doing some gardening in one of our front flower beds a few days ago.  It had recently rained some, and the weeds were easy to pull, so I was spending some time doing just that.  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a golf cart pulling up into the drive and coming toward me.  I knew that Rick, our neighbor, was coming to see me for some reason.  Sometimes it’s just to visit; other times he needs me to do something for him.

Rick is retired, and has difficulty getting around due to the after effects of a long-ago stroke.  He often uses the golf cart to get the mail or visit some relatives a couple of blocks away in our neighborhood.  So it wasn’t at all surprising that he showed up in our drive.

It turned out that he wanted me to go next door to his place and try to raise the hood on one of his vehicles.  He had pulled the release inside the cabin, but couldn’t figure out where the secondary latch was that would give final release.

It isn’t unusual for him to ask me to do some small thing such as this, and I am happy to oblige.  He and Sharon, his wife, are good neighbors, and are doing their best to make their way in the latter stages of life and living in spite of the difficulties.

I went with him into the garage and made certain that the release had been pulled inside the cabin.  I then went to the front of the vehicle, turned on the flashlight on my phone, and looked under the hood for the secondary latch.  It was right there in the space between the hood and the radiator, which is where I expected it to be.  It was difficult for me to reach my hand into the space far enough to manipulate the latch lever, and I don’t have large hands at all.

Rick’s hands were much larger than mine, and weren’t as nimble due to his physical condition.  I think he wasn’t able to get his hand in far enough to even touch the lever, let alone move it to raise the hood.

When I did get my hand to the lever, at first I couldn’t raise the hood even though the lever moved.  I tried a couple more times, and got it to raise up.  It turned out that the hood latch was built so that if one lifted on the lever too hard, it seemed to catch somehow and wouldn’t let the hood up.  Whether that was an intentional thing or just a flaw in the design, I don’t know.  One had to lift rather gently on the lever…then the hood would go right up.

The first couple of times, I was trying too hard.  Making things more difficult the harder I tried.  How often have you found yourself in that position in life?  Something happens that you need to respond to, or you’d like for something to happen in a certain way, and you find out that the harder you try to make whatever it is happen, the worse the situation becomes.  I like to use the term “finagle” to describe such behavior.  I know the dictionary definition of the word, but I tend to take a little different personal view of the word.  While the dictionary describes the word as resorting to deception, cheating, or swindling, it also uses the term “cleverness” to explain it.  That’s how I use the word…cleverness…we will resort to almost any means to get the results we want, as long as those means don’t conflict too much with our moral compass.

Fixing the issue of trying too hard doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t try at all.  Sitting back and letting the world go by, not engaging in anything of substance is not how God wired us.  He has outfitted us with certain talents and abilities and expects us to use them to finagle??...no, use them for His glory and for His purpose.  As it is with many things in life, there is a kind of happy medium where we are diligent and purposeful in what we do, but we don’t overdo it…nor do we sit back and just let things deteriorate.

Finding that happy medium is sometimes one of the more difficult things we as humans encounter.  It takes maturity, wisdom, and yes…even courage and strength to resist going off of the deep end one way or the other, staying the course.

When God is our guide in life and living…when our desire is to serve Him and our joy is participating with Him in the renewal of the creation in our sphere of things…then we are within His will and purpose for us.

Don’t lift the hood latch to forcefully, because it won’t work.  Don’t try to hard.  Do find joy in what you do for the Lord.  Do find satisfaction in partnering with God in your sphere of influence.  Do allow Him to do the finagling, as it were, FOR you and on YOUR and HIS behalf.  And rest in the knowledge that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

 Blessings.

"Thank You"

 Each Sunday in our worship services, we set aside some time for the communion.  Some may call it the eucharist or some other designation.  Many of us are familiar with this religious observance, even if we don’t attend regularly or our particular church does not regularly participate.

The mechanism of delivering a piece of unleavened bread and the wine, or the “fruit of the vine,” as many call it, differs from church to church.  Some pass trays with the elements on them down the rows of worshippers.  Others have participants come to the front of the auditorium to an altar.  Some have clergy hand out the emblems.  Some distribute one-time-use cups that are sealed with both the bread and the wine inside.

At RiverWalk, we have both the sealed one-use cups as well as ushers who will serve the elements to those who prefer that method.  Those ushers will go up and down the aisles, and generally know who would prefer to be served, because it usually the same worshippers from week to week.  They also look for raised hands signaling that the person would prefer to be served.

We sit across from an older lady in the assembly.  I believe she is the oldest member of our congregation.  She’s in her mid-90’s and still drives to services and lives on her own.  Doris prefers to be served by an usher as it is difficult for her to use the pre-filled, sealed cups.

Last Sunday, I happened to watch as she took the emblem from the tray that Keith was carrying.  When she had done so, she looked at him and mouthed, “Thank you,” to him.

I turned away and faced the front again.  But I couldn’t get out of my mind the simple act of kindness that I just saw.  For some reason, Doris mouthing a thank you to the usher was to me a profound example of how simple acts of kindness and gratitude can overflow even in the midst of the most routine and mundane events and circumstances.  Now, I’m not saying that the communion itself is mundane and routine.  Far from it.  But the idea that someone would thank someone else for doing a job that he was supposed to be doing in the first place…and during a time when our thoughts were on Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross…came across to me as something special and in a real way very integral with the communion itself.

We say it often, many of us do, in many ways and many venues.  Kindness matters.  Civility matters.  Gratitude matters.  Thankfulness matters.  Kindness, civility, gratitude, and thanksgiving should be as routine and normal for us as breathing.  Those qualities should be embedded into our lives and routines to the point that doing anything to the contrary would create within us a sense of, “Why in heaven’s name did I do that?” and cause us to make it right if we could.  And if we couldn’t, to at least determine that we will do better.

“Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”  The Bible is filled with these kinds of statements.  We also find many examples of kindness, gratitude, thanksgiving and civility in that book.  That way of living promotes a kind of inner peace and joy that just can’t be matched by anything else.  The effect on society at large, even if we just commit the small kindnesses and acts of gratitude, is so much greater than just about anything else we could do to influence our corner of the world for the good.  And, it’s something we can all participate in…regardless of our race, creed, color, origin, orientation, wealth, age, or any other marker of who we are.

“Be kind to one-another.”  Good stuff.