Bungee Cord 3-2-15

Bungee Cord 3-2-15

Hello,
I am pretty sure that I got conned last week.  A man showed up to the church last week “hoping that we could help him”.  This happens almost every day, and sometimes many times a day.  Undoubtedly, there are many who ring our doorbell who are truly in need of help, but just as surely my 30+ years of being a pastor has made it clear to me that many, if not most, are not being truthful with their needs.

Some people have dug themselves into very deep holes and living in them has become their lives….addiction, financial sloppiness, obnoxious behavior, criminal history…..others have fallen into very deep holes and for them, too, living in them has become their lives…abuse, mental illness, pink slips, abandonment, health issues.  Some people would say that people such as these are leaches on society as they manipulate the system (and it is true that many do), but when I see these “hole dwellers”, I see people who are sinking in desperation and hopelessness….living their lives doing desperate and hopeless things…like manipulating the system….and conning pastors.

The Bible tells us that Jesus, too, encountered people who were living their lives in deep holes.  Some had fallen into them  (lepers, widows, crippled and demon possessed).  Some had dug themselves into deep holes (adulterers, extortionists, greedy and rebellious).  The interesting and important thing to note that when Jesus dealt with them, it didn’t matter to him how they got into the holes they were in, all that mattered to him was lifting them out of their holes so that they could truly live.

I wish that I were as smart and insightful as Jesus.  For I, too, am motivated by Jesus’ lifting of me out of my hole, to be a lifter of other hole dwellers.  So, when a person comes to the church doors seeking a room for the night in a local hotel, am I lifting them up by putting a roof over their head, or am I helping them dig deeper by enabling their addictions for which they can now use their money?  So, when a person comes to the church door seeking food, am I lifting them up by giving them a generous supply of food, or am I helping them dig deeper in their hole as they go out and sell that food to pay off a bookie or loan shark?

The man who came to our church door last week told a story that I have heard many times before…addiction, trouble with the law, homelessness, trying to get back on his feet, a job that starts in a couple of weeks.  The unusual thing about his story was the degree of sincerity with which he told it….the things that he said that he was doing to try and get himself out of his hole….the connections that he said he had made with others.  In listening to him I decided that I believed that to help him with his request might indeed be placing a rung on a ladder of helping him get out of his hole.  And so I did.

But no sooner than when he left, I found myself second-guessing my actions.  Over the years I have learned that desperate people have honed their skills to get what they need.  They know what to say.  They know how to look.  They know how to cry when they need to.  They know what documentation to have.  And as I looked back with my encounter with this man….I noticed that he had utilized all those “tricks”…or were they in this case “truths”?  I guess that I will never know.

I think I got conned, and if so, I am afraid that I did not help that man, but instead helped him dig deeper his hole.  And if I was conned, I don’t know if he laughed triumphantly about the pastor over whom he just pulled the wool my eyes.  I don’t know if he confirmed his view that pastors are easy targets because they are so naïve.  But I do know this…I listened carefully to his story….I dealt with him as helpfully as I could as he spoke of his trials and addictions….I spoke of God’s forgiveness of him for the pain he said he had brought upon himself and others….I spoke to him of the grace of God that I need as much as he…I tried to treat him with the respect that I would give if he were the President of the United States.
I don’t know if I was conned or not, but I do hope that the honest Christ-like compassion that came from my heart will not be a shovel with which to dig deeper but rung of grace that will lead him to light.

Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger