love thy neighbor

I love my job.

Often times, when someone inquires about my job or what I do at my job, I express how much I enjoy doing what I do and how I am thankful to be in the position that I am but, also, how I wish my job didn't have to exist.

Without getting too much into the whole discussion of the role of the church and/or the Christian duty, I will offer a suggestion which is that if the church, Christians, body of believers or whatever you want to call Christ followers really stepped up to the plate and fulfilled their total calling then places like Cross and Crown and other ministries, para-churches, shelters, food pantries ect. wouldn't be necessary.  But, in the meantime, I'm happy to be where I am.

One of my favorite experiences as a full-time, staff member at Cross and Crown is getting to observe people and relationships that develop between volunteers, staff members and those who come with some sort of need.

A recent encounter I was able to observe took me a while to completely process.  The encounter was between a Hispanic women, Sequroh, who works in the clothing room at Cross and Crown on a daily basis and a homeless, African-American, schizophrenic man, Michael, who sleeps across the street from Cross and Crown.

Over the last couple of years Michael has been in and around Cross and Crown for several different reasons.  Food, clothing, getting his laundry done, helping out around the mission by sweeping, carrying boxes and unloading food truck deliveries, Michael has done it all.  Over the course of this time he has developed several significant relationships and, undoubtedly, left lasting impressions on others.

Naturally, because of his frequent visits and Sequroh's consistent presence in the clothing room, the two of them have built a friendship.  A very unique, friendship.

A couple Sunday nights back, following our meal and worship, everyone wrapped up their duties and conversations and headed out the doors.  This was the Sunday night that the temperature dropped significantly following several days of warm weather.  As I headed out the door and began walking down the street towards my car I noticed another car that was slowly approaching me.  It was dark outside and so I was unable to identify the car until it pulled up across the street from me, directly across from Cross and Crown.

"Crap."  I thought to myself as my mind started revisiting all the movie scenes where the car drives up real slow and then everyone hits the pavement.  "This could be bad."

Much to my delight, the car belonged to Sequroh.  After staring at the car for a brief moment the window rolled down.

"Where is Michael?"- Sequroh asked.

"Huh?" - I replied.  I wasn't completely sure who she was talking about.

"Michael.  Where is Michael?  It is very cold." - She said as she held up a large blanket.

"Oooooh.  He should be under the stairs." - I told her once I realized who she was talking about.

Once I figured out that she was bringing a blanket for Michael because of the cold weather I jogged over to her car and repeated where I thought Michael might be.

She jumped out of her car, walked into the dark, quiet brush and repeatedly questioned, "Michael? Michael? Michael?"

Finally, following Sequroh's multiple attempts to find Michael, Michael woke up from a nap, of sorts, and acknowledged Sequroh.  Sequroh quickly handed the blanket to Michael and in her broken English said,
'
"Michael, here is a blanket.  It is cold.  Here."

Michael took the blanket and Sequroh hustled to her car without any further conversation.

Sequroh and I exchanged good-byes and went our separate ways.

The rest of the night I couldn't help but smile and laugh to myself as I considered the irony of the whole occurrence.  The norms that had been crushed.  The social boundaries that had been crossed.

One one hand you have Sequroh.  The small, Spanish speaking, Mexican-American women who, because of her origin of birth, is deemed an 'alien' in the place she has called home the majority of her life.

On the other hand you have Michael.  A much taller, African-American, former college football quarterback, schizophrenic man who is labeled and treated as an 'alien' by most because he has no place to call home ( sound familiar? not bad company if I do say so myself).

What a perfect combination, right?

So, there are the two characters of the story.  One lives in a house up the street from Cross and Crown and the other lives across the street without a home.  Technically, they're neighbors.  Without a doubt they're more neighor'ish than I am with my actual, physical, across the street and right next door, neighbors.

Whether or not Sequroh consciously thought about Jesus' command to "love your neighbor" doesn't really matter.  She did it.  She's doing it.

She didn't broadcast it over the internet.  She didn't put up flyers.  She didn't wait until she could round up some friends so that they would think highly of her good deed.  She didn't have to have a committee discuss, vote and start up a ministry all in order to get up at night in the cold and drive down the street to give a homeless friend a blanket.  She just did it.

She gets its.

That's why I love my job.