cairns

We had a nice soaking rain this evening.  Just enough at our house to revive the lawn.

Further into the city where my daughter lives it was more of a problem.  The pavement is above the drains so that they sit down in a hole at the side of the street and clog easily.  My daughter messaged that her husband was at work and she was in the basement bailing water hoping “they” cleared the street drains soon.  Knowing full well that the only “they” is “us,” I took off with a pump for her basement and a heavy rake.  (The rest may sound like bragging about everyday events if I don’t tell you I had selfish motives.  I didn’t want my pregnant daughter bailing dirty water; I didn’t want her things ruined; I didn’t want my granddaughter worried or playing in dirty water; I didn’t want to pay for new things either! Confession done.)

Neighbors a block from her house were trying to stop all traffic from going into the water, but didn’t seem to have much idea what else to do except wait for “the fire department to set up some saw horses or something.”  Got the pump to my daughter and waded down to the corner of her street.  There was one man already there with the drains freed up some.  So, I helped him get all four opened and headed down to the first group of people and started opening their drains.  Had a nice conversation with a young couple standing out watching the water and lamenting the soaking of the decorating they had just done in their downstairs.  The lights honestly seemed to go on as she turned to him and said, “We could do that next time!”  Got them going and went a block the other way to help folks there already working to clear their debris.

Soon the streets were clearing and I headed back toward my wonderful 96 Toyota pickup (water was too deep to reach my daughter’s house without it!) to head home.  Got stopped by a guy begging for a jump.  With obvious alcohol breath he told me he never even saw the water and now his car wouldn’t restart.  He was asking in a way that made it clear he expected to be rebuffed.  I told him it was OK, I would help him as much as I could; said good night to my daughter and headed back his way.  Of course his problem was water not a dead battery, but we tried until he was convinced he had to wait for it to dry out.  Helped him get his car out of the way and locked and gave him a ride home.

On the way he started telling me about how hard things are, working trying to make it, finally got this car on payments, then this.  He asked me, “So, why do these things happen to me?”

There was a time when I might have moralized about drinking and driving and how accidentally baptizing your car is one of the least horrific results a person might expect.  There was a time when I would have felt compelled to tell him about Jesus.  Tonight, I realized he just needed to know that good exists.  So, I simply reminded him that’s why we help each other when we are not the one with the problem.  He affirmed that he believed and practiced that too and that it was important to take care of each other, but still offered to pay me the couple of dollars he had.

I have friends who are experts at having convincing conversations with people about faith in almost every situation.  Tonight, I knew talking about Jesus would ruin the community of people just helping other people.  I wouldn’t be one of the several people helping each other the best they knew how.  I would be some guy taking advantage of misfortune to sell my beliefs.  That wasn’t what any of us needed.  We needed to just be neighbors.  This fellow just needed affirmation that good does happen when we remember to look out for each other.  That was enough, and his handshake when he left was of far more value than his dollars or a notch on my conversions gun!

We shared a little kingdom time in the rain, and it was good.

peace

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