True Christian

Unfortunately due to my early exposure to a Catholic school, and to my later exposure to Christians who wanted to take over the government and destroy the state constitution (not to mention the federal one), I have a poor attitude about Christians. I've known a lot of people who went to church but didn't live what I think of Christian values (and not just Christian). One exception to that was Denver D's father, who in his mid-70s was running a meal program "for old people," was working for Meals on Wheels, and baking many dozens of cookies for prisoners in Canyon City.


Thus, Denver D's dad became my gold standard for a good Christian, a standard to which I don't hold non-Christians.


I met a good Christian today. He works for the postal service, and is about my age. He noticed on his drive to work a homeless encampment under a highway, consistently numbering about a dozen people. As the season was turning from summer to fall, he started a blanket collection among his coworkers for the homeless. He was in the process of trying to figure out which agency would want the blankets and then one night he couldn't sleep. He got up and took the blankets to the encampment.


Now, it's moments like these that I think ignorance is bliss because if his man had had much interaction with the homeless he might have been reluctant to go their campsite in the middle of the night. Of course he was warmly received, and for the last nine months he and a dozen or so USPS friends have been delivering food to the encampment twice a week. Out of their own pockets, they have been purchasing little- or no-prep-required food and delivering it to the folks at the camp. He said they deliver the food, talk with the campers, pray with them, and that they've become friendly with the people at the camp.


From some of the of things he said I gathered that he is serving these folks because his faith tells him to do so, the way Denver D's father's faith told him to serve the elderly, the shut-ins, and the prisoners.


It's possible that this man I met today "hates the sin" and wants a government that is run on some kind of fundamentalist Christian agenda. But I don't know that about him. I know that he is feeding the hungry and warming the chilled. It happens that his faith gives him the reason. I don't think that's a bad thing.


"I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me."


Those are pretty good words to live by, regardless of their source, I think.