Questionable Treasures

 

"You have a place with Him - None were more shunned by their culture than the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the deaf. They had no place. No name. No value. Canker sores on the culture. Excess baggage on the side of the road. But those whom the people called trash, Jesus called treasures." ~Max Lucado Daily: Everyday Blessings

 

I used to be one of "those" kinds of Christians. You know the kind. We went to church every service. We attended every church function and conference. We invited our family and friends and those in our circle. We did fund raisers and kept everything moving inside the church. We didn't get too far outside of the church's four walls. It's a dirty, sinful world out there.

I thought about this as I was out running errands today and I drove past a local bar. I remembered many years ago passing that same bar on my way home from church on a Sunday night. As I was going past, a woman came stumbling out the door. She was so drunk she could hardly walk out to the street. I was so disgusted. After all it was Sunday night.... I wish now I would have had more compassion. 

That was along time ago...... 

 

I think God sometimes calls us to be like the people we see at rummage sales, searching for a treasure. I think we need to look past all the wear and tear of life and see the breaking hearts of people that others might have thrown away. They are everywhere. They are right where you live. They are like buried treasure covered by the trials and heartbreak life has thrown on them.  With Spring around the corner I was thinking about the motorcycle rallies we attend. How I find myself right in the middle of the crude and the lude.  How sometimes I just look out over that crowd of tattooed, pierced, inebriated, hurting and wounded folks and pray. I wonder how many of them have no idea of a Savior that loves them unconditionally. I try to talk to new faces, ask about their lives. Sometimes they open up.  I look around at the treasures God has placed right before our eyes. Buried treasure. If we are going to dig for priceless treasure, we are going to get dirty... I do better these days, but I still have a long way to go.....

 

"I'm not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to speak of the miracle of Our Lord's divine transformation? Not really, no. I don't want to talk about His divinity. I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life here on Earth. His kindness, His tolerance. Listen, here's what I think.... I think that we can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do, by what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create and who we include."

 

Pere Henri

from the movie: Chocolat