Read 2
David is 9 years old and fearless. He don’t like pink, he don’t like school and
he don’t take no lip. During Kid’s With a Future, a tutor brought David to me
because he’d hit another boy. I asked
Blake, the tutor, to walk David home and explain to his Momma what had
happened. Soon Blake was back. He told me that he had walked David home but
hadn’t talked to his Mother because the meanest looking dog he’d ever seen was
tied up on the front porch and he wasn’t taking a chance with that dog. I decided to walk down to the house because
I’d never seen a dog there before. Sure enough
the most square-headed and mangiest looking dog I’d ever seen was tied up and lying
on the porch.
I used my best dog-wooing voice to tell him what a pretty
boy he was and what a good dog he was and then I put my foot on the bottom step.
Immediately the dog stood up, lowered his head and let go a low growl. I took a giant step across the sidewalk and
moved into the street. The dog started towards
the porch steps and I started calling David’s Momma. Soon the front door opened and Susan came out. “Will you please put your dog in the house so
we can talk?” I asked. She squinted for a second and then bent over laughing,
“Miz Marsha, that dog ain’t gone bite you. He ain’t got no teeth!”
St. Luke UMC is poor, needy, unpredictable and indescribably
wonderful. Any illusions we may have had about being in control disappeared a
while back but in the busyness I often forget.
Sometimes I am jolted by circumstance beyond my control and my impotence
paralyzes me with doubt and fear. I am not in control. Susan’s laughter and the words she spoke that
day became a rarely experienced and desperately needed moment of transcendence.
Are you afraid to
share your gifts with the people who need them the most? Does the thought of worshipping with folks
who might need more that you can give fill you with anxiety? Does remembering that you are not in control
leave you paralyzed by doubt and fear? Then
repeat with me the words of David’s Momma, Susan, “That dog ain’t gone bite you!
He ain’t got no teeth.”
No comments:
Post a Comment