Sometimes the message is hard to hear

 

For some time now, I have been receiving a daily meditation e-mail from the Henri Nouwen Society.  I find that these meditations usually help me get started on the right path for the day.  I will admit that I don't always stay on that path, but I'm getting better.

I'm going to share the following recent meditation that really "spoke" to me.

                                        Fools for Christ

Sometimes we have to dare to be fools for Christ. That means that sometimes we have to be willing to give food to people who don’t really need or deserve it. And sometimes we have to be willing to work with some people who might even exploit us. Maybe this is as close as we can come to an experience of self-emptying. It is the experience of being useless in the presence of the Lord. Understand me well, I am not trying to praise impracticality, nor am I trying to suggest that you should not stop doing the things you are doing when they prove to be counterproductive, but I am saying if you come in touch with the experience of being used or the experience of being useless, you might in fact be close to a true Christian experience, or closer than you sought.

For many years, my wife Sarah and I volunteered at our local food bank.  We had many opportunities to "see" God's work being done there.  While there, I often would help carry the bags groceries out to a person's vehicle.  Sometimes that vehicle was a bicycle, or a two wheeled shopping cart.  One day while helping a person with their bags of food, I noticed a woman who just also picked up several bags of food.  She was placing those bags into the trunk of her car.  Now, I'm one of those "car nuts", have been all my life.  In fact, my older brother would take me to the side of local highway when I was about 5-6 years old so I could name every car that went by and "amaze" his friends. I can tell you more than you would ever want to know about a particular car brand.  So, when I tell you that this woman's car was a very expensive imported luxury sedan, you can be sure that I was not mistaken.  I was shocked and angry.  

This incident happened several years ago, and it wasn't until I read this Henri Nouwen Society meditation that I was able to let it go.  I now realize that holding onto my anger did not change anything or anybody but myself. Was it easy to do? I wish I could say yes, but I struggled and prayed and overcame my natural stubbornness and I can say, it was well worth it.