(sorry this is so long, but I promise it's worth the read...)
I teach Sunday school and Wednesday night bible studies with some regularity at the church I attend in Huntsville. In closing with a prayer two weeks ago I prayed that we would all have a chance to minister to someone that we would not normally have come into contact with (in case you don't already know, I have a big place in my heart for the poor and underprivileged). The day after Christmas I'm falling asleep on the couch in my grandparents house (all the beds were filled with various uncles, aunts, and cousins) and I'm realizing that I haven't fulfilled my own prayer. This wasn't out of selfishness or inconvenience, but after a moment of self reflection I realized that there really had not been anyone that was placed in my life that was a ministry opportunity (*note: not to be confused with an evangelizing opportunity). I fell back asleep resolving to make sure I paid attention to the people around me lest I miss a chance to show somebody the love that this season is really all about. Two hours later it's 1:45 in the morning and my dad is waking me up to tell me we're going (what can I say... the man likes to travel early!). We hop in the car and begin the 5 hour trip back to Huntsville. About an hour down the road, we're in the middle of nowhere on a tiny two lane highway and I'm woken by the car pulling off the road and coming to a stop. Jumping out of the car and telling my mom and brother to stay put, I follow my dad to an old, beat up van that has slid off the embankment and is stuck in the mud on the side of the road. A young black couple was trying to push it out, to no avail. It was pretty obvious they were poor, the kind of poor that makes middle-class white folks regret every time they ever complained about having money problems. Dad and I jump in there to give them a hand, but the van simply was not going to move. The man thanks us for the help and dejectedly pulls out an old cell phone and 411's the number for the nearest towing service. He tells us that the tow truck is 15 minutes away and thanks us again for our help. Dad, knowing there's nothing more we can do, apologizes one more time saying he wished we could do more and begins to walk back to the car.
"What's the damage?" I ask the guy.
"$75," he replies.
I hustle back to the car, told dad to wait a second and pull $80 out of my wallet. I had been given that $80 by my dad for Christmas with special instructions... "Spend it one someone who needs it," he told me. I ran back to the guy at the van, handed him the money, shook his hand and told him that I hope this could help make the holiday a little brighter. No mention of God, Jesus, or salvation through a cross on a hill, but if you really believe that that wasn't an effective ministry for the kingdom than you've got your head stuck in the sand.
And so I pray the same thing for you. May you have the opportunity to minister to someone in need, because if you look hard enough in the face of the person you serve, you’ll see the face of the savior.
"Generosity without orthodoxy is nothing, but orthodoxy without generosity is worse than nothing." - Hans Frei, Yale Theologian
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