My buddy Lucas has some hobbies I admire...and desire for that matter--guitar playing, web design, & songwriting to name a few. He has another hobby that is quite peculiar to say the least. He keeps a camera with him in his car so that when he's driving through the sticks and brush of central Texas and happens upon a church sign, he can take a picture of it. Lucas has quite the collection I might add. This latest one from Pastor Shaw and First United Pentecostal of Brady is his latest.

As soon as I read it, I became angry. In fact, if you visit Lucas' site, you'll see that the comment I left reflects a desire to bomb the church with water balloons. If you read the other 1o or so comments left behind, most show the same sentiment. Rightly so, I would say. Lucas questions the message well when he writes, So is the command to care for the poor really contingent on the poor’s behavior? Where is that in Scripture? Why are we usually so busy worrying about what other people should be doing instead of obeying what we’ve been commanded? Well said Lucas!

This morning I showed some of my colleagues at Mission Waco the sign. Oddly enough, they began to laugh. For a moment, I began to feel as if I was missing something. Then, as we discussed the sign, it became clear that we see signs like these nearly everyday in the condescension, ignorance, confusion, and apathy of the "white flight" Christians who feel like a garbage bag full of old, wrinkled, balled up clothes is an act of Love towards one's neighbor.

I then realized that as angry as this sign makes me, it is in someway a damning testament to how I approach the needy. In the line of work I'm currently in, I daily cross paths and talk with the needy, the homeless, the poor, etc. And almost as often, I find myself saying 'No' to a request for money. Most of the people I work with do the same. In fact, when I talk to friends and family scattered throughout suburbia and the U.S., they typically refuse assitance rather than offer it.

Why's this? Well, the norm usually goes something like this: "How can I be sure that homeless guy is going to use the $5 I give him on a meal and not alcohol?" We generally want to make sure that we aren't supporting a habit or addiction...or laziness. And as soon as I catch myself thinking that this rationale makes sense, I stand convicted of living out that church sign from Brady, Texas.

So, as I stand armed with my water balloons to toss at those I disagree with, I realize that I'm, in fact, soaking wet. It's now up to me to challenge myself with the words that Lucas wrote regarding the sign in Brady:

So is the command to care for the poor really contingent on the poor’s behavior? Where is that in Scripture? Why are we usually so busy worrying about what other people should be doing instead of obeying what we’ve been commanded?

What we've been commanded.