On the Race you hear a lot of stories about the people you help and the way God moves through those amazing moments. But what about the people we walk right past? What about the times we are disobedient to God? What about the people we missed an opportunity to help?
The first Sunday being at my ministry site in the Dominican Republic my team and another team went down the mountain to help out at two different churches. Afterward, 11 of us once again squeezed into a jeep made to fit five people, and headed back up the mountain.
Halfway through our hour long journey, we stopped at a gas station. Some of the people in my car jumped out to get snacks from the store while we waited. Ten or twenty minutes later they climb back in and I hear a story about a mentally challenged woman who was abused in the store right before their eyes.
And they didn’t do anything.
One of my teammates was particularly distraught about it so we talked about it briefly and it got me thinking.
Here was a mentally deranged woman who immediately came up to our car when we pulled in and made some of us uncomfortable right away. Our driver warned us to be careful around her. Comments like, “What a creep” were uttered from our mouths.
Then water was thrown on her out of sport by the men who worked at the gas station, causing her to run into the store for refuge. But the refuge she sought turned out to be the perfect stage for another worker to taunt and tease her while other shoppers looked on and laughed. Then she was thrown to the ground. Then she was dragged by her foot out of the store.
And everyone just watched.
I wasn’t inside the store and I want to believe that I would’ve done something. Said anything. My teammates were sitting next to me wishing they hadn’t been so scared to speak up. Hadn’t been too confused to step in and help that woman. And I wish I could say I would’ve been different.
But I can’t say that, because I don’t know. The reality of our world is that we are taught to ignore the ones who are different. To stay away from the “creeps” because you don’t know what they’ll try to do to you. And very often that turns into treating them like they are the scum of the earth. It turns into teasing and taunting because it’s “funny.” When in reality all you’re doing is forgetting that they’re a child of our one true King.
Who are we to let someone be treated like that? Who are we to not step in? Who are we to fear what will happen if we try to help, when Jesus helped the least of these all the time.
We didn’t help that woman. But it was a perfect lesson in the grace of God. My teammate who was in the store and witnessed what happened, came back into the car questioning if she was even a Christian for not helping that woman.
And the answer is: Yes. We are still Christians.
And that’s where God’s grace comes in. Next time, we will not stand by and let that happen. Next time, we will speak up without a moment’s hesitation. Next time we will bring the light of God into a situation like that and not stand for someone to be treated in that way. This time was a missed opportunity to bring the kingdom in that gas station. But next time, you better believe that God’s glory will be shining through us as we fight back for someone else.
