Monday, January 28, 2008

Profound Lesson from a Strange Old Man

Working in a church building daily always has its fair share of interesting people who stop by. More often than not, when the door bell rings at our building, it is a case for someone needing some benevolence. While the church always wants to help everyone, there are times when churches run out of funds. This is the case for us now, as January was a hard hitting month for people needing assistance, and we ran through our budget rather quick. I never know what to do with the people who come seeking assistance after we are out of funds for the month. I always offer them a prayer, or an opportunity to come in and talk. Today, at around 3:30 the doorbell rang. Philip, our minister, was meeting with someone in his office, and our secretary is on vacation, so I got up to answer the door. I was already going through what I was going to say in my mind: "I'm sorry, we're out of funds for the month, but can I pray with you?"

As I opened the door, a feeble man of about 75 years of age stood there. He appeared not to be a benevolence case. I introduced myself and asked if I could help him. He looked me as straight in the eyes as anyone ever has, and said: "I've been a Holy Roller, a Pentecostal, a Baptist and a Catholic. None of them worked for me. So I thought I'd give you guys a try. What can the Church of Christ do for me?"

I stood there baffled, not knowing what to say. I usually am pretty quick on my feet when I am asked a question, but that one took me off guard. What can the Church of Christ offer me?

Now I must let you know, it ended up that this guy was a long time friend of one of our Elders, Mack Whitaker, and had some clothes to drop off for our benevolence Clothing House. He was just pulling my leg, and the guy is a faithful member of a church nearby. But the question still lingers in my head - what can the church of Christ do for me?

I'm going to have to get back to you on it, because I'm not really sure if I have a real answer to give. Any of you guys have any thoughts?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Lane, it looks like we have a discussion topic for lunch next Friday. A very thought provoking question. I'll have to spend some time on that one. But what an opportunity to share we will have, if we can come up with the answer.

-Lane said...

I look forward to the discussion. Its a profound question to say the least.

chesley said...

Lane, my comment has nothing to do with this post. I'm a little behind reading my blogs and just saw that you guys found out you're having a girl and wanted to say congrats! We're learning all about little girls these days ourselves!