Friends,
I wanted to share with you an experience that one of the Peer Ministers (young adults who serve as college ministry interns as part of Lutheran Campus Ministry of WNY, a Lutheran Charities supported agency) had today and recently wrote about. His name is Nick.
"Alright! So I just though I would share an experience I literally just had outside of my apartment building.
So I may have many empty soda bottles and cans... Like A LOT of empty soda bottles and cans. (It might have been my roommate's birthday this weekend... Don't worry about it.) The garbage is on the street to be picked up tomorrow, and since there aren't any recycling centers close by, I was just going to place them there to be thrown out.
When I came outside with the first load I saw a man going through the cans, he asked me,
"Do you have any bottles?"
I, of course said, "yes," due to the obscenely large bags completely full of bottles in my hands. I mentioned I had more inside, and he was all about it, so I went in and grabbed those too.
After I gave the bags to him he thanked me and said,
"God works in mysterious ways."
I turned to go back inside. But I didn't have my keys... I locked myself out of my comfy apartment. I told this man I locked myself out and he was all bummed for me, but we just started chatting each other up.
He had a great job and lost it.
He had a wife that cheated on him.
He has no kids.
He has no money.
He also said, "I will never steal, cheat, or lie, those are the things that are ruining this world."
I was locked out of my comfort. I was in the rain talking to a honest, kind man with nothing, and I was smiling and sharing joy with a person many see as an outcast.
A teacher named Ram Dass said, "Treat everyone you meet like God in drag."
This man going though my garbage was God in drag.
That was Jesus.
Just in that single interaction I was forced to see what I have, how blessed I am, and how I don't need much of anything to be happy and share in joy with someone else. And then had a few commandments reinforced as well, in a very tangible way.
God certainly does work in mysterious ways."
Thanks Nick!
Lord, keep working in mysterious ways please. Amen
Still in One Peace,
Steve
