Post by Rev. Steve Newlin on Aug 27, 2009 1:02:14 GMT -5
A Winding Road to Faith
[/color][/blockquote][/blockquote]Back when I was a just a teenager, performing mission work in South Texas, I met an old homeless man called Jorge who used to sing for change outside my hostel. He was skinny and toothless, and obviously had some sort of mental retardation or illness — he would often just sing and laugh to himself while hiding under a brightly colored zarape. Day after day when I'd return home from building houses or handing out food, Jorge would greet me by name — or try to. "Seeve," he'd say, "got a bocadillo?" So I'd pass him whatever leftover food I had from lunch, and he'd smile a toothless grin of gratitude.
This went on for the whole summer I was working there, and I took joy in the fact that God had given me the opportunity to care so directly for someone in need. Occasionally, I'd leave him with a parable or a bit of gospel, which he always seemed to enjoy. But one hot afternoon, when I returned from work, Jorge was nowhere to be seen. In his place, I found a group of police cars and ambulances. Immediately concerned for my oddball friend, I approached a young paramedic and asked what happened. His face looked absolutely stricken as he told me. "Some homeless guy — pretty old — abducted a little kid...and killed him. I've never seen anything like this in my life."
And then I noticed Jorge, sitting in the back of a squad car, smiling as ever and waving at me. Sickened by what had happened, all I could do was return to my hostel room and pray on it. And the more I struggled with what I initially saw as Jorge's betrayal of my faith, the more I began to realize that I was the one who'd misled myself. In my haste to be a man of God and help a lost soul, I'd taken barely a moment to conduct my own appraisal of the situation. I was so quick to indulge my desire of helping Jorge, the harmless old codger, that I never paused long enough to see that he was a dangerous, albeit pitiable, psychopath.
We must understand that as children of God, we're predisposed to seeing good in the world. It's in our nature to be thankful rather than critical, hopeful rather than suspicious. But there is a darkness on this Earth, and as we navigate our way through it, we must take care not to blind ourselves with the very light that leads our way.
