I have a dilemma.
It isn't a serious one, but I cannot seem to make my mind up about this.
I have posted before about working occasionally at a local homeless shelter and food pantry. While I think this is a quite valuable use of my time, I am also thinking about quitting.
This is a very good experience for me overall. It connects me to a part of my local community I would not have occasion to meet otherwise. It gives me a time and a place to be somewhere, a time to be committed in an organized way, and to be dependable to someone other than myself or my immediate family.
I often don't want to go. I like staying home on Saturdays with my family. The work can be boring and tedious, and the food we give away is often substandard.
My biggest qualm is this though: the over the top Christian right environment. It drives me crazy, and I often have to steer the conversations away from my own spiritual belief system because I just don't want to get into it.
For the last two food pantry days I worked, a fundamentalist Christian radio program was playing the entire time. I cringe thinking about the anti gay, anti choice, and anti LOVE message that I am forced to endure while working.
BUT, I also am really enjoying getting to know the people who run the place. I find them fascinating. One of the big movers of the place is an 83 year old woman who drives 4o minutes to the shelter several days a week. The people who come for food are interesting as well.
On this last Saturday, as I was about at my wits ends with the radio and Christian messages everywhere I looked, a little girl walked in- she was about 4 years old and dressed in a pretty purple coat and hat.
I recognize her now and she called me Miss Shannon. She was shy at first, but once she got talking she really got talking. She and her mom were looking for something fun and free to do on a cold, cold Saturday afternoon.
It just so happened that one of the food items in Saturday's bags was a big tub of frozen cookie dough leftover from the PTA cookie dough fundraiser from my son's school. I listened to this mom and her little girl make plans to make cookies that afternoon, and I knew that I played a part in her having a more wonderful day.
On top of that, who knows whose day she might brighten with a plate of cookies she made with her mama? It may have started a snowball of events that make the world a better place through cookies and smiles.
When she left, she turned around and gave me a big warm hug goodbye. That warmed my heart in a way that I can't even put words to.
I shut the door behind her and my attention went straight back to that horrible radio station.
We closed up early that day, and I was quite relieved and ready to go home.
3 comments:
Miss Shannon,
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'
Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'
And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
----
no matter how annoying and idiotic the message you are hearing on the radio, know that your work is being a true and honest and pure act of x-tian hospitality. You are acting out the real message of the gospel.
That is a gospel message of love, grace, acceptance, healing and holding.
Thank you.
Justin
thank you for responding Justin. I am glad we have reconnected after all these years. did i ever tell you that I did use that epiphany sermon at fellowship this year?
I don't think you did, but Tripp sent me an email saying thanks for remembering it and sharing it.
he was honored that you liked it.
Thrilled you used it.
I, too, am glad for the reconnection...facebook is good for something ;-)
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