Sometimes doing church gets in the way of ministry
My brother pulled a good one yesterday (Sunday). On his way to be with the church he stopped to help a motorist who had found herself with a flat tire and up over and onto a curb where it was apparent that she was not going anywhere. Well, I was in the middle of the church's service when one of the ushers tapped me on the shoulder and said that my brother needed some help. My sister in law continued on and dropped the kids off where they needed to be and asked if there was anyone who the usher could get to help. I was it - it was my brother after all.
Well, I grabbed the cell phone (my sister in law was not painting a calm picture of the situation) and we headed out. It seemed as though she had just gotten out of the hospital after having received some sort of knee operation. She was acting as if she was still under the influence of some pain killer, but my sister in law was not sure if this was the case or not. By the time we got to the scene my brother had changed the tire and another car had stopped to offer assistance. With the tire changed, we had to get her off of the curb in her little (but newer) Hyundai and we were not sure how we were going to do that without obvious damage to the car. She was not financially well off and a tow truck would have been our treat.
Well, my brother was not far from home so he ran back to snag some plywood and we got her off the curb with relatively little effort. Thank God we didn't need a tow truck. We then spoke to her for a bit and sent her on her way home. She mentioned that she wanted "to get to church" but we encouraged her to just get home.
On the way back to the service all it took is for one of us to suggest that Aslan's voice in the film adaptation of the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe should have been Sylvester Stallone's rather than Liam Neeson's to get us cracking smart remarks all the way into the church building. I was again standing by my wife just before the offertory.
Good job brother. Thanks, God, for taking care of her, us, and helping me to sort through the conflicts that were in my heart and mind as my sister in law drove me to the scene.
Well, I grabbed the cell phone (my sister in law was not painting a calm picture of the situation) and we headed out. It seemed as though she had just gotten out of the hospital after having received some sort of knee operation. She was acting as if she was still under the influence of some pain killer, but my sister in law was not sure if this was the case or not. By the time we got to the scene my brother had changed the tire and another car had stopped to offer assistance. With the tire changed, we had to get her off of the curb in her little (but newer) Hyundai and we were not sure how we were going to do that without obvious damage to the car. She was not financially well off and a tow truck would have been our treat.
Well, my brother was not far from home so he ran back to snag some plywood and we got her off the curb with relatively little effort. Thank God we didn't need a tow truck. We then spoke to her for a bit and sent her on her way home. She mentioned that she wanted "to get to church" but we encouraged her to just get home.
On the way back to the service all it took is for one of us to suggest that Aslan's voice in the film adaptation of the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe should have been Sylvester Stallone's rather than Liam Neeson's to get us cracking smart remarks all the way into the church building. I was again standing by my wife just before the offertory.
Good job brother. Thanks, God, for taking care of her, us, and helping me to sort through the conflicts that were in my heart and mind as my sister in law drove me to the scene.
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