There are times in my day to day ministry that I find myself inclined toward cynicism. In fact, it is a leaning that I have to fight a fairly regular basis. In 22 years of serving in ministry, I have seen enough of the darker side of human nature to fuel such an inclination. I have not always been that way. In my early days in ministry, I was actually a tad naïve and innocent. But that was all before the famous Shrimp Dinner case…

How he got my phone number I do not know. A man called one Saturday evening in 1987 in desperate straits. His van was broken down and his family was hungry. They were traveling across country and were out of funds. Could the church help? He went on to tell me that they were at the Imperial Motel. (A few years later when I started serving the police department as chaplain I learned a few things about the Imperial Motel.) The motel was anything but imperial!

My reaction to such a need on a Saturday night…. Well of course we want to help! All of the leaders at church were out of town that weekend, so it was up to good ole John to save the day. I made arrangements for the minus one star Imperial Motel to bill the church. I called a locally owned restaurant to make arrangements for an evening meal for the entire family. I felt so good about my benevolent deeds for a family in need.

The next morning I called the motel to see if we could make arrangements to get the van repaired. My family in need had checked out… The van apparently healed itself. They went back to the restaurant that had provided a meal the night before to eat breakfast, and lunch too… Of course the church is being charged for all of these meals. And then there was the grand finale of my benevolent gesture. My sweet little family charged a dozen shrimp dinners to the church at the same eating establishment on their way out of town…

I picked up the bill at the restaurant on Monday morning. At first I was embarrassed. And then I was scared the church would fire me! And then I got angry! The man at church in charge of benevolent funding was very understanding. I think he had a hard time not laughing! But he could tell that I was genuinely upset. I will never forget what he asked me that day .He said: What did you learn from this experience? That was the appropriate response.
I appreciated him for it.

I think the disease of cynicism entered my heart that Monday afternoon in 1987. I lost a part of my innocence! It became harder to trust people in need after the famous shrimp dinner case. I continue to learn every day that we are called to serve people. We cannot control their motives. We cannot wait until their behavior reaches a certain level of righteousness. We don’t have the luxury of checking out their track record. We have to love as Jesus loved. If we choose to do otherwise, we may find that we make some grievous mistakes. More on that tomorrow….