Taking the Time to Make a Difference

I was tempted, but I was in too much of a hurry to give in. The hazard of writing a column that exhorts readers to “take the time to make a difference” – is that I really ought to practice what I preach. On a gloomy winter day I was waiting at a stoplight. I had the time to look at my watch, to read the gas gauge, and to survey the street ahead. A tall figure stood at a bus stop, facing away from me, in a winter coat with a hood. He was not even looking in the direction the bus would come. That’s where the wind was coming, too. Some months ago, I had written a column suggesting that today’s Christian could use another “Corporal Work of Mercy.” In addition to feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, and so on, I had suggested that “Giving a ride to someone” would be a good addition. At the stoplight I questioned myself. Do I want to offer a ride to this person, the one right in front of me who is waiting for a bus? I don’t think he is dangerous. He’s on a public street. Maybe he’ll think I’m crazy. Why would anybody offer a ride to someone who already has a plan for getting where he needs to go? Do I have time to do this? Before I could answer all the “whys” and the “what ifs” the light changed to green and I was on the move. Just two or three seconds now to make a decision. No more time for scriptural reflection about what Jesus might do. He has a coat. He has a hood. He has bus fare. He can take care of himself. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know where he is going. I don’t want to be late. What if he thinks I’m nuts? Should I care if he does? Am I thinking about doing something that will make me feel good? Or helping someone else? I just kept on driving, and got to my appointment a few minutes ahead of schedule.

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In recent months, I have heard stories from and about people who need a way to get somewhere. I have heard about people in the city where I live, who cannot get a job a the big retail store in the next county, because they don’t have reliable transportation. I have heard about people who have great difficulty getting medical care because public transportation doesn’t go where they need to go, and cabs are expensive, and maybe cab drivers don’t even want to pick up a fare in certain neighborhoods. Maybe saddest of all was the story that was just simple and human. A woman said her brother lived some miles from her, but could not come for Sunday dinner because the buses don’t run on Sunday, and he was too proud to ask for help. In a real emergency, a person will do almost anything, pride be damned, but how many of us would beg for a ride just to spend time with family?

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And speaking of family, what if -- I wonder now -- what if that man at the bus station had been my brother Bill? Or a first cousin? Or someone I knew from work or school or church or . . . ? Or the Jesus we are told we will discover in the “least ones” among us?

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It is certainly a rare occasion for any of us to find someone beaten and robbed, lying in the ditch along side the road. It is a lot easier to find someone walking or waiting in the wind and the cold. Who in your neighborhood or parish needs a ride to church? To the store? To the doctor’s office? Or to visit a friend or a family member on the other side of town? No one of us can — or should – drive the city streets picking up people ahead of the bus. No one of us can help everyone get to where they are going. Every one of us, though, can take the initiative in the neighborhood or the parish. Every one of us can take a hard look at the public transportation system, to find out if it serves the people who need it – and if it doesn’t, to do what it takes to make a difference.

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