First, allow me to apologize for the lack of posts. Life has been one of the craziest seasons I have had in a long time.
Now to the story. Last evening I was down town on the famous 16th Street Mall in Denver, Co. If you have never been, it is an amazing place to be. There are people walking around, laughing, enjoying street performing talent, and all sorts of excitement. As with any city, 16th Street Mall is not void of the homeless. Last night, I had to run out of the restaurant I was in to feed the meter to avoid any parking tickets and I noticed on my way a homeless man standing on the corner selling “The Voice”, a phenomenal program which I am all for. As I walked by this man and continued to my meter I was overwhelmed with compassion for the man. Being a man who is extremely blessed, I thought it would be appropriate to ask him if he might like some food from the restaurant I was eating in.
The response I received from the man blew me away, but after some thought, it makes perfect sense as to why the response was what it was. The conversation went something like the following, not perfectly remembered word for word, but you get the drift:
Me: Hey man, can I get you some grub at the restaurant I am eating in?
Man: Thank you sir, but I already ate, and I would not want anything from there anyways.
Me: Would not want anything? What do you mean?
Man: I am a Vegan, so I do not eat at most restaurants.
Now let me explain before I offend, I am not against Vegans. If you have the capacity and discipline to be Vegan, I applaud you. I hope it is not offensive that I would never want to be Vegan, due to my love for meat, but nonetheless, that is not what surprised me about his response. What was the most surprising about the response was simple yet profound.
What I understood this man to be was in need. What I did not understand is that though this man was in need, he was specific about the need he was in. This got me thinking a lot. As Christians, we are this man. We stand on a corner, trying to sell our version of material to get people to buy. We are in desperate need of something huge, but we get picky. We become Vegan in our faith. What I mean by that is we take out all of the stuff we do not like or do not want to hear and we start to crop out things that are difficult or hard. We move closer and closer into our own comfort zone until eventually, boom, we become Vegan in our faith. As I thought about it, it was more and more profound.
This man was not a bad man, to my knowledge. He was very well spoken and had every intention of not taking a hand out. But the fact that his hunger would continue due to the lack of desire to chew on a particular substance was astounding. To put it bluntly, he was picky.
How often do we do that? How often do we water down what we hear or try to get picky with what we believe and do not believe in Scripture? Are you a Vegan Christian? I am not trying to spin a negative connotation from this encounter as it encouraged me to make sure I chose to chew on the hard stuff in my own faith, but the imagery just seems to roll right out of my brain. Are you currently or are you becoming a Vegan Christian? Someone who will only take in the parts that you want and refuse to take in the parts that you need?
Everyone is this man. We are all in want. My prayer, is that when someone comes up to us offering us some food (metaphor… please do not miss it), that we not be individuals to turn it away because it is not our preference.
If we are supposed to take everything with a grain of salt, maybe sometimes we need to chew on some meat.
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Food for thought: Put it another way, are you picky with what you read or hear from Scripture? Why or why not? Do you not think that you are in need? I pray we all move toward a balanced diet in our search to saturate our hunger.
leadershape 