Porch

Today I was in the inner city of Flint. I made a pilgrimage downtown to look at a rickety old porch that needs to be replaced. Sure enough when I arrived I looked over the decrepit porch and agreed that it needs replacing.

As I was standing there, Eric came up to me and said, "watcha doin?"

"Lookin at the porch....it needs to be replaced."

"Yep. It does."

What he said next floored me.

"Yeah, Orville used to sleep under there before he died a couple of years ago."

"Say what?"

Oblivious to the reality of what he said, he repeated, "Yeah, Orville used to sleep under there."

Sure enough there were some large cardboard pieces that resembled a makeshift bed. Lots of cobwebs, lots of bugs, and more cobwebs. I was looking at someones bedroom underneath a porch on Flint's East Side. Orville has gone home to heaven where the furnishings and surrounding are more comfortable. He is on heaven's front porch instead of underneath a porch in Flint.

It makes me wonder.

Recently I was reading a book entitled, The Testament of Gideon Mack and a comment brushed the cobwebs off of my psyche.

The author says, "I used to think that most people were instinctively charitable towards the less fortunate. Now I am not so sure. Perhaps charity is simply a way of putting distance between yourself and misfortune."

I think it is easy to fork over a few bucks to take care of the less fortunate. It is another thing to "get under the porch" and taste their suffering. It is easy to pray for those that are hungry just before we sit down to a banquet of choices.

Sometimes I think that we give little when He calls us to give everything.

Sometimes its uncomfortable to see suffering close up. Sometimes it is disconcerting to think that we can do very little to alter the course of life for many that are facing insurmountable odds.

Today I learned a very important lesson. Jesus said, "Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me." Matthew 25:45

God, give me another chance tomorrow...help me to keep my eyes open for the least, the lost, the last. Help me to respond in ways that are pleasing to you when you answer my prayer.