2019 … hanging in the Home of GOD
It was some four days later when, after a very long day of foggy-misty walking, I stumbled into the town of Beduer; a town where no amenities were at all available for a Peace Pilgrim like myself. It was starting to get dark and the rain was beginning to fall and I was thinking I was going to have to spend the night in the public restroom across from the central church, when local “matriarch” Nadine was summoned to the situation. Nadine happened to be the person in charge of said church (which was closed at the time due to ongoing renovation) and, after hearing about my Walk’s hows & whys, that is where she decided let yours truly spend the night; even bringing me food prepared by a friend and bedding from her own home to do so …
“Some people believe that happiness means refusing to tolerate anyone who makes you nervous or feel in any way ‘less than.’ Of course, the truest bellwether of Right Action — namely, the selfless Way of Christ, demands exactly the opposite. Indeed, it is Jesus himself who essentially tells us all to get off our self-righteous butts and reach out to life’s most difficult people in the middle of life’s most difficult moments. Indeed, his ministry wasn’t in any way about a bunch of like-minded people getting together once a week to sing hymns while receiving a non-binding feel-good message that they may or may not apply in their lives, depending on the depth of their fear or anger. No, the message of Christ is and always has been about caring for and helping the downtrodden — the poor, the wanderers, the hurt, and the homeless; the difficult, the scary, the repulsive, and even the wicked. It is about turning the other cheek when someone hurts you. It is about ‘making amends’ even before any wrong has been committed. It is about reaching out to strangers with acts of reckless kindness. In truth it is about Loving others over & over & over again, and giving them as many chances as they need to respond affirmatively thereto … And it is only when we do this that we can come anywhere close to actually knowing Christ — and it is only when we truly know Christ that we will ever know real Peace and true Joy.” ~ inspired by Shannon L. Alder
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