Good People in the World

So many of you know about the excitement I had a couple of Sundays ago.

Pastor Peter was on vacation, so Mike was preaching at the 10am service and I was leading worship through communion. We were serving communion in the pews that day. While the wine was being passed around, the sound man motioned for me to come over, and told me there was a police officer in the Parrish Hall waiting to speak with me. I took a deep breath, not sure of what to expect, waited until everyone had taken their communion wine, said a prayer, and dismissed the children and youth to Sunday school as calmly as I could, then went out to meet the officer.

She told me Shantana and Fenton (my pregnant wife and two-year old) were doing okay, but had been in a car accident on the way to church and were in ER. The hospital is right across the street from Pilgrim, so I told the officer I would walk over right away. Before I left, the officer stopped at my car with a few of Fenton's toys they had taken out of the car.

In all the chaos, we found people trying to live up to their best selves at every turn. Even the person who had caused the accident turned out to be an emergency response worker, and stopped right away. As soon as the emergency workers found out Shantana was pregnant, they loaded her up on a stretcher and put her in a precautionary neck brace, then put Fenton into the ambulance as well. Four firemen were riding in the ambulance with them. Of course, Fenton was scared, and Shantana was on a stretcher so the only thing she could do to comfort him was start singing "The Wheels on the Bus." Pretty soon, all four of the firemen joined in.

Throughout the day, we encountered doctors and nurses trying to do the best they could for us with as much compassion as possible, and a security guard who helped me move Fenton's car seat over to my car so we could take him home from the hospital. When I thanked people, most of them said something to the effect that they were "just doing their job." While that's true, we all have choices about how we do our job. We can do our job reasonably well, doing what's expected of us, and no one will complain. Or we can work to treat everyone we encounter during our day with grace and compassion.

We have that choice to make throughout our lives, in whatever we do. We can live our lives going through the motions, moving from one task to the next and doing what we need to do. Or we can treat the people we encounter as children of God, as people seeking the same kinds of connections we are seeking and hoping for the same kind words that we all want to hear. Living a life that way isn't always rewarded - not everyone will return a friendly smile, not everyone will respond to a kind word - but believing that it will make enough of a difference to be worthwhile is an important act of faith. I was reminded of that again a couple of Sundays ago, when the caring of strangers helped my family and me through a difficult time. I hope I will be able to live into that faith the next time I have the chance to make a difference in someone else's day, by showing them the same kindness.