The same day that I had the conversation with Mr. Hanson I had another encounter that was personally challenging. I had just finished helping the team in the ladies dorm and moved to the men's dorm when I saw, vividly, how some people were unable to feed themselves.
I had never thought about it, but I didn't know how - either comfortable, or willing I would be to sit patiently and feed someone in the situation that was unfolding before me. I do believe that the Lord provides us with such opportunities and challenges to let us see our own mettle.
As I walked through the men's dorm I came upon a man that could not, it seemed, steady himself enough to sit upright. As I came close to him, in my heart I really wished someone else would go over and serve him. I thought to myself, "I have never done this before and I am not comfortable."
But, I was challenged to do so myself - it is so easy to minister from the pulpit, or speak into lives from the comfort of our ivory towers - but there are times when we have to get into the trenches and do what the Lord has commissioned. After the fact I was speaking to several of our young men and mentioned how easy it is to stay far and be a blessing, or serve from a distance - the challenge is when we come close, face to face, with the problems of others, and personal issues with which we are uncomfortable - WHAT DO WE DO?
Run we may, but we are called to be all things to all men.
This man needed help not just to eat but to even barely sit upright. I had to get a pillow, stand behind him with the pillow on my legs and keep him up while I spoon fed each portion of the soup we had brought. My days in New York as a Vice President at Chemical Bank NA flashed before my eyes, then as a Senior Manager at Memorex Telex, then my own company as CEO, I thought of my time of ministry in the pulpit and I realized that none of those endeavors provided the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction as taking a small plastic spoon and feeding someone who could not feed himself.
Several times he gasped for air and was obviously short of breath, so I bent close and asked him how he was feeling ... his words in a low, slow crawl "I am feeling weak." I kept on feeding him until the soup was done, but he really fed me with a sense of God's compassion that I have not had before.
O Lord, that we would care for the hopeless and dying.
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