Passing By
During a political election year, a tow truck driver was called to assist a woman who was stranded with a broken-down vehicle. But the truck driver, upon seeing a bumper sticker on the car for a candidate he disliked, informed the motorist that he wouldn’t help her and drove away. His actions remind me how we sometimes choose to ignore those who need our help.
good for the neighborhood
In January 2015, a terrorist stormed Hyper Cacher (a Kosher supermarket) in Paris and murdered four hostages. One of the store’s clerks, Lassana Bathily, heard the gunfire and hid shoppers in a freezer. Bathily, a Muslim whose courageous actions saved several Jews (including a child), was an immigrant who had been seeking French citizenship. As a thank-you for his bravery, authorities fast-tracked his papers and handed him a French passport during a public ceremony.
hospitality to strangers
In 2011, marine biologists around the globe were fixated on a pod of sperm whales in the North Atlantic Ocean; they had adopted a bottlenose dolphin calf. Jens Krause, a German behavioral ecologist, told one news source that sperm whales have “never been known to mingle this closely with another species.” Apparently the young dolphin had a spinal defect and couldn’t swim fast enough to keep up with other dolphins. But surprisingly, the sperm whales gathered the struggling dolphin into their fold.
coffee house
A pastor wanted to break his church out of their formal traditions and nudge them in a fresh direction. He sensed that the congregation’s formality was discouraging the local community from walking through the church’s doors. So he began to take small steps to help them change.
clear communication
Many battles in life stem from false assumptions that are made due to lack of communication. For instance, we share a wall with our neighbors and—since moving in 6 months ago—they’ve been redecorating. The garden, the garage, the bathrooms, the bedrooms; nothing has escaped a hammer, an electric power tool, or a paintbrush.
use my room
When I agreed to help start a book club at my church, I was excited about choosing the titles and discussing the literary works. I wavered, however, when I had to decide where to hold the meetings. (My house often has cluttered countertops and my kitchen appliances don’t always sparkle.) Thankfully, one Sunday morning, a woman in my church offered to host the meetings at her home. I sensed a genuine spirit of hospitality, and I gratefully accepted her proposal.
extending grace
When I was growing up, my family often became frustrated because I would take whatever I wanted into my possession. If anything went missing, the invariable response was to “look in Gina’s room,” for I was sure to have nabbed it. In a just vindication of their frustrations, my hairbrush now shows up in my daughter’s room, my scissors can be found in my son’s art case, and my phone charger is in my husband’s possession as much as my own.
in our hearts
After observing the warm fellowship of believers in Jesus, this was the reaction of the unbelieving Greek writer Lucian (AD 120–200): “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator [Jesus] has put it in their heads that they are brethren.” Near the same time that Lucian wrote, Tertullian affirmed: “It is our care for the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Only look!’ they say. ‘Look how they love one another! Look how they are prepared to die for one another.’ ”
Christmas kindness
My son spent his first decade of life in a warm East Africa climate. For his 10th birthday, I used frequent flier miles and took him to the western part of the US to experience snow.
a long way
In trying to sell our house by owner (not using a real- estate agent), my husband made sure to ask each of our neighbors for permission to place a directional sign at an intersection near our home. One particular homeowner seemed surprised that Scott had bothered to ask. As he gave his assent, he admitted that his usual response was to pull up any signs left by others who had not asked his permission. So we weren’t surprised, when driving by his house a few weeks later, that our sign remained in its place while another real estate sign had been removed and tossed to the side. The lesson for us was clear: A little respect goes a long way.
outsiders
Most Christians who read the Old Testament identify with the Israelites. This is appropriate, for the Jews are our spiritual ancestors. They were the people of God in the Old Testament, and the church defines the people of God in the New Testament. We belong to the same family and share the same story.
And yet, if you’re a Gentile…
gracious and salty
During a press conference in New York City for Clint Eastwood’s new movie Hereafter, the journalists were clearly smitten with him. When a Brazilian journalist apologized for his poor command of English and a “silly question,” Eastwood sat forward in his chair and told the writer, “No question is silly.”
After the event, a journalist reported, “One gets the feeling…
good call
Early in 2011, a US baseball coach made the best call of his career. Tom Walter, the coach of the Wake Forest University baseball team, chose to give up one of his kidneys so that one of his players could live. A freshman player, Kevin Jordan, had been stricken with a disease that attacked his kidneys and left them functioning…
so close, yet so far
Tom Shadyac, the director of the films Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, and the Ace Ventura series, recently purchased an old downtown church building in my hometown. He converted it into a shelter for the homeless. When I asked him about his impulse to create The Haven, Tom recounted his college years in Charlottesville, Virginia and how he didn’t understand back…
