Shocked from My Comfort Zone…

This post is reposted here from sbcIMPACT, a site where I primarily serve as webmaster. Since it’s a personal account, I thought it might be of interest to readers here that don’t get over IMPACT’s way.

Last Friday morning, I had an experience that shocked me out of my comfort zone a bit.

I had a lunch meeting planned with a couple colleagues, and had over-estimated the amount of time it would take me to make the trip through Kansas City to one of my favorite out of the way BBQ joints. Arriving nearly a half-hour early, I found myself with time to kill. Sitting in my truck, checking e-mail on my iPhone, I was blissfully unaware of everything going on around me.

The sudden rapping on the driver’s window just to the left of my head shook me back to reality. Heart racing from the sudden shot of adrenaline, I jerked my head in that direction and found myself staring straight into the weathered face of a beggar.

I rolled my window down slightly, letting in a biting draft of cold air.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m sorry to bother you sir,” the man stated with eyes cast toward the ground, “but my wife and I have not eaten in 31 hours, and I was hoping you could help.”

He began to reach into his coat, and another shot of adrenaline hit my system. My mind was racing. “What was he reaching for?” “How could I get out of here fast?” “Why in the world did I ever decide to stop the car?” “If only I had checked Google for directions to get a better time estimate!” “Why on earth is there never anyone else around when you need them?”

He pulled out a knife.

“I don’t have much, but I could sell this to you.”

As I sat there unresponsive, eyes surely glazed over, he continued, repeating his situation again, sharing more about the knife in an effort to convince me to buy it or help him somehow, and asking questions I couldn’t begin to answer from the stress pulsing through my body. There’s no telling what he was thinking about me.

I finally snapped to my senses.

“31 hours, you say? Let’s go inside, and I’ll buy you some lunch.”

Now, you could give me props for doing the right thing, but they’re not at all deserved. You see, like the Pharisees that prayed grand prayers for the benefit of being seen, or that gave vast sums of money (in large quantities of the smallest denomination)… the action itself was all well and good, but the heart impure. I didn’t look at this guy with the love of Christ. I’m not even sure I ever even saw him as a person. I just knew what the right response was and did it begrudgingly.

In that moment, I think I experienced in myself the root problem we Christians have with truly making a difference in the lives of the poor and destitute… most of us don’t even want to see them, let alone interact with them or treat them like a person.

Now I’m not sure where to go with this, but thought I’d share my experience. Like I said, it shocked me out of my comfort zone, and made me realize something about myself that frustrates the heck out of me. That realization?

Matthew 25:40
The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

You see, I had a chance to serve Jesus and was ticked off about it. And that attitude just ain’t right, regardless of whether my actions were.

Perhaps there are others in the same boat?