Lend Us A Hand

Recently I read this story about a catholic minister and the boys he met one day. It made me think about how many times the unsaved call out to Believers for help. Sadly most times we are too preoccupied to ever hear their voices.

“While walking to his parish one day in clerical garb, a couple of kids called to him from across the street. ‘Hey mister would you stop being a minister long enough to give us a hand?’ Stunned by the words but braced for the challenge he crossed the street. When he arrived on their side he found that the chain of one of their bikes had broken and needed to be fixed. So he knelt down right there on the sidewalk and started to dismantle the bike and remove the chain. The two young brothers couldn't believe that this minister would actually get down to help them. And they were even more surprised when he proved skilled at fixing their problem.

When he had finished repairing the bicycle, they apologized for making him get his hands so filthy with oil and grease. He shrugged it off. ‘No problem fellas. Want to learn how to get off grime like this?’ ‘No way’, one of them said, ‘you cant get that off here.’

‘Let me show you,’ he continued. Once again he got down on the ground, but this time he gathered up dirt and washed his hands in some loose soil. After he scrubbed the dirt into his hands he turned to them and said, ‘do you know where we can find some water?’ The boys said, ‘we live right around the corner. Come with us.’

So the three of them went marching right into the kitchen of their house, much to the surprise of their mother, who was asked to move over at the sink as she stood open mouthed at the strange priest her children had brought home with them. ‘Thank you for letting me wash my hands here,’ the priest said as the boys watched the water work its magic on his hands, restoring them to spotless purity. The mother then asked him to stay for tea. He confessed that this was one of the strangest pastoral calls he had ever made, but also professed to having learned a lot about ministry in the postmodern culture from this one incident.[1]”

[1] Dr. Leonard Sweet, Introduction to Organic Church (Neil Cole)