First, a confession:

After graduating from college, I had the opportunity to tour Europe by bicycle and train.  I will never forget the day I arrived in Amsterdam.  After weeks of grubby cycling, I had met up with my mailed-ahead backpack and a few changes of clothes.  Walking through the city square, I was reveling in my fresh skirt and the feeling of being cleaned up as much as in the sightseeing and scenery.  Ahead of me in the plaza, a young man stood up and detached himself from his group of friends.  He was shaggy-haired, with the emaciated figure of a drug addict.  As he wobbled toward me, my thoughts were on my clean skirt and not wanting it to get dirty.  When he stumbled and collapsed right next to me, I carefully looked straight ahead and kept walking, aware that someone else behind me had stopped to check on him.  Afterwards, I was profoundly convicted of my hard heart and hypocrisy.  A friend suggested it would have been unwise for a young woman alone to help a drug addict, but honestly, I wasn’t concerned for my safety as much as my skirt.  In a way, I am thankful for that experience, because God used it to teach me a lesson I will never forget.

A better story:

A quarter of a century later, my kids were at a youth group overnight at our church.  When the youth pastor called my husband, concerned for the kids’ safety because there was an intoxicated woman hanging about the grounds, we headed over there.  As my husband went inside to talk to the youth pastor, I struck up a conversation with the woman.  Coming out a couple minutes later, my husband was shocked to see me embracing the woman; her brief sharing had moved me to compassion.  We offered to drive her home, which turned out to be a series of U-turns and vague descriptions; after realizing that her “home” was under a bridge and that “her stuff” that she wanted to retrieve was in the possession of a violent boyfriend, we ended up turning her over to someone else’s care, which seemed to be the best thing to do, under the circumstances.  I treasure that evening with that woman, the opportunity to express love and value to her and allow that to overwhelm any concern over my self or my upholstery.  I don’t share this story to boast, but to express how profoundly grateful I am to have been able to love and touch her in a way that redeems the first story.

These aren’t the only such stories I could share, but I’ve selected these two because of the contrast between them, and because they are a testament to the work God has done in me over the years.  I always want to be prepared to live the better story.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  Matthew 23:23

 Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”  Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”  Luke 10:36-37