11:00am Grocery Cart

It's not differences that divide.  It's our judgements about each other that do.
-Margaret J. Wheatley

He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will wear.  For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.”  Luke 12:22 & 23

It contains everything he owns.  A winter coat, one sweatshirt, several t-shirts, another pair of pants.  A tattered blue blanket.  Several shoeboxes filled with stuff found over the months or years.  Assorted cans of food.  Day-old bread.  One small baseball bat.  A black garbage bag filled with aluminum cans.  Half of a flattened cardboard box… 

His mother’s family bible.  The real big kind with all of the family history inside; marriage and death dates, birth records.  Several dozen funeral bulletins are tucked inside.  We sit on the church steps as he goes through every one of them, sharing memories, telling stories of family and friends.  It is a brisk autumn morning but he does not appear to feel the wind. Besides, he has no where he needs to be. This is how this hour begins.

To carry your home, your life, with you everywhere you go; to just own what you can transport… As he continues to talk my mind drifts off.  I cannot help but think about the hundreds of storage units I pass by every week in this city, filled with furniture, clothing, books, stuff. I cannot help but to reflect on the dozen or so people I pass by each day pushing grocery carts down alleyways and city streets.  To have way more than you need.  To not have just enough of what you need; food, clothing, shelter, an honest living.

Almost two hours pass before he gets up to leave.  I offer him a few dollars “just in case something comes up,” I say to him.  He hesitates.  “You’ve already gave me a lot,” his words are slow and deliberate.  “No one has talked to me in weeks.”

O God, in this world of abundance you have created for us, some of us have claimed too much and many of us have access to little.  I thank you for reminding me this day that some of the most valuable things I have to share are my time, my compassion, my very presence. 

This Hour’s Ponderings

1.  What do you need to share with others?

2.  What are you carrying that you need to unpack?

3.  Who needs you to hear their story?

4.  How is God speaking to you this hour of this day?