Ministry and Fear

I was about to exit the lobby of Baylor All-Saints around 11 o’clock last night when a lady called out to me. During a brief conversation she told me her car was on the fritz, and she had been stranded in the area after doing some after school business. She wore the badge of a teacher at a local public school near the hospital. She asked if I would drive her home (a few miles away). I was wondering why she didn’t seem to be afraid of me. It was late, I was tired, and I don’t look all that attractive when I am at my best. Of course, she could not possibly have known that I am the “famous,” and “beloved,” Christian West. 🙂

The irony here is that I was the one who was afraid. Was this some kind of ploy? Would I be robbed at gunpoint, maybe killed or left for dead with my car stolen? Did she have an accomplice in the parking lot? A lot of other scenarios played out in my mind as I agreed to give her a ride to her apartment.

I have concluded that I watch and hear too much “news.” Our society has reached the point that we are afraid of each other, terrified that murder, mayhem, sexual assault, robbery, violence of all stripes and variation are waiting for us around every turn. Help for someone in genuine need cannot be part of our activity as fear consumes us. And perhaps we come by that fear rightly.  I determined again last night I don’t want to live that way. I will not be thwarted from ministry to others by fear and doubt.

On the way to her building, we talked about her Church, and the one I attend. She said she would come to visit the place where I worship. She told me about being a music teacher, and her llove for children. I watched from the car as she entered the building, and thought to myself, “inasmuch as you have done it to one of these, you have done it to Me.”

Now I am wondering if she really lives over there somewhere, or if one might entertain “angels unaware.”