BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR OPPORTUNITIES

by Barbara Chadwick

As we walked up to the front door of KFC we saw a man sitting beside a backpack. Beside the backpack was a hand lettered sign - HUNGRY.  I told him to come in with us and order whatever he wanted. He seemed grateful and said, “Thank you.”  When we got inside I saw several people look at us with interest.

Waiting for our order we asked where he was from. He said he’d been around and in different places but now he had custody of his son and he wanted to find a job and someplace to live and a church. He said, “I believe in God. People have told me the Mormons are no good and others say the Catholics are no good. Whatever denomination you come up with someone will say it’s no good. The Bible doesn’t say you have to go to church in order to be a Christian. I just believe in God.” I invited him to our church and then our food was ready.

He had ordered his “to go” so he said, “Thank you and God bless you” again and left. We found a table and started eating. As we were eating, a man came up behind me and said, “I want to commend you folks for getting that man some food.” Had others noticed as well?

So. Isn’t it interesting. All the people that came in that door saw him there but didn’t invite him in – because…?

-          lack of money?

-          haste to get back to work?

-          they’d been taught not to get involved for fear of getting hurt?

-     they'd read that some indigents are not really needy but scam artists? 

-          distaste? (He did have tattooes all over his face. He did smell like he hadn’t had a bath.)

Jesus said in Luke 10:27, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And in describing who is our neighbor He tells the story of a man who was robbed, beaten and left for dead. A priest and a Levite passed that way and saw him but they crossed to the other side of the road. A regular guy, a Samaritan, came along. He bandaged his wounds, put the man on his donkey and took him to an inn. Notice that he didn’t just leave him right away. “He took care of him.” (verse 34) Then when he had to go he gave the innkeeper money with instructions to care for the man and a promise to reimburse him for any extra expense he might have.

Then Jesus asked, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell in the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law answered, “The one who had mercy on him.  And Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

I’m afraid I don’t have Jesus definition of mercy. It’s easy to buy someone some burritos and say, “God bless you and goodbye.” But in Jesus story, The good Samaritan cleaned and bandaged his wounds, took time out of his own schedule, took him to an inn and paid for his care and recovery. In addition he planned to come back and check on him!

So if we’re going to “Go and do likewise,”  we’ve got to seriously develop some mercy. We need to have some determination and practice. Then we need to be on the lookout for opportunities.