Tuesday, August 9, 2011

In Your Wake...


Vacuuming behind the couch is a big job but I can’t put it off any longer.
My littlest girl decides to help me. 
She rides on the couch as I push it aside.
I find that bulletin with the missionary opportunities in it.  I set it aside.

She finds a toy but can’t squeeze behind the couch to put it away.  The path to get there was just too narrow.
We find a piece of garbage, and she, not able to fit through the now limited normal route to the garbage can, realizes she needs to go the other way around.
She says, “It’s the bigger path.”
I vacuum around every nook and cranny.
Then I pushed the couches back in place and she could now put away the little toy.
She’s easy to work with.  I love that!
I remember how the business men were talking about how Christians were the worst to work with.
I guess they are the most difficult, mean and fickle.
In the Believer’s wake is the back stabbed businessman who poured hours and care into what the Believer wanted.

Would I be like that Believer?
I think about my past experiences…
Even if I can’t think of a time when I acted thoughtlessly, I’m sure my departure wake has hurt some.
I grieve over the thought of how the business world has been affected by Christ followers.
I grieve over the time that now comes to mind when I was that awful believer.
I try to justify the “bigger path” that I took that day.
I repent.
I re-pick up the bulletin that burns in my hand and sears my heart.
How can we think about being missionaries to other countries when we can’t be “real” within our own neighborhoods, in our own towns, to our own people?
I crumble up the bulletin and stick it in my pocket. 
I vacuum the middle of the floor.
It does seem to be easier to neglect what’s behind where we sit each day,
Where we sit to meet for business,
Where we see only what’s right in front of us.
It’s easy to not want to do what’s hard.
Some call it being “on”… but shouldn’t our person be refined enough to let some of our guard down without being embarrassed…
Of the dusty, the dead bug, the garbage and the gracelessness.
What once was a common curtsy is now a mask, a toy to be donned when necessary.
And put in the toy box for later when not.
Who are we really?
Who am I really?
I think about the narrow path.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  Matthew 7:13-14

I think about how I helped my littlest one, by moving the couch back into place, so she could put away her toy.
I think about the businessman…
And the wake I left, that was probably hard to swallow.
I think about how we all really need each other.
To look over our fence in kindness,
To move the couches, the business deals, the things that seem impossible for other ones… alone.
To walk hand in hand
Or side by side
Or in your wake…
Of love, of kindness, of thoughtfulness along the narrow path
The path that was built, brick by brick, by the One who could sum up all of our purpose, all of the law, and all of the prophets words with…

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.  Matthew 7:7

It’s good to vacuum behind the couches, with another.
It’s good to walk this narrow path with you and him, and her, and their people too.
But it’s too narrow, too tight of a space to leave a wake of mean and hurt.

I look up that businessman’s number.
I think about next time…
I vacuum behind the couches
I call a business person
I look around the cobwebs in my heart and decide to leave it better than the way I found it.
Because on this narrow path, there just isn’t any room for anything…
But kindness, thoughtfulness and love.