What The Heck...?

Tonight I am in Indianapolis to attend the National Government Services “Mission Possible” convention which begins tomorrow. – WOOT! as Alex would say signifying a sarcastic level of enthusiastic excitement.

I saw a peculiar thing this morning while I was driving here. I passed an older model van pulling a small camper. As I got along the side of the van I noticed that they had a window unit air conditioner installed in the back side window, and held in place with duct tape. It was the oddest thing and gave me a quick flash of the Beverly Hillbillies. I have been mulling over the reasoning of that van rolling down the highway with the a/c hanging out of the window.

This little conundrum has occupied a corner of my thoughts today. I don’t get why people do the things they do. If I let it, the uncertainty of not knowing will just eat at me like an itch I can’t reach. In the end, what difference does it make to me? But, I have an inquiring mind, as I told a friend of mine earlier tonight.

Right now I’m not watching the National Democratic Convention, (sorry Michele.) I am watching Intervention on A&E. Phil can’t understand why I watch a program about addicts. But this show allows me to move beyond seeing “addicts” to getting a glimpse of hurting people. It gives me answers and opens my heart in compassion for them.

It is so easy to judge others on the basis of our own lives. I also find it’s true that judgment can quickly turn to empathy once you know of their experiences. Unfortunately, we are not called to know each others’ stories in order to be kind and loving toward them. We are called feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and invite in the lonely even when they don’t look like us.

And, maybe it’s a good thing that all people don’t look like me. Here’s what other drivers might have seen in my car during parts of my drive today; a woman, traveling alone but laughing hysterically, talking to herself or maybe even bopping in her seat. Because they weren’t in the car with me to hear the radio maybe they were also saying “What the heck…? It could certainly appear that I was wacked out – or “weird” to quote Alex.

Matthew 7:3-4 (NIV) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”