Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Every now and then in my generally comfortable life, I hear these words from Jesus afresh: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” I am hearing them especially fresh today as I reflect on Friday morning.
Bill and I drove out to Bayer’s Melon Farm Market in the late morning. We learned of the market a few years ago when we passed it for the first time on our way to Richmond, Indiana where our daughter, son-in-law and two of our grandchildren live. It’s a wonderful market run by some plain people—not Amish but more conservative than Conservative Conference Mennonites. Anyway, they are a people apart who make available delicious produce as well as dairy products and local honey to their customers. Right now, they have incredibly sweet and juicy peaches and blueberries along with delicious locally grown tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and green beans. It takes twenty minutes or so to get there. But it is definitely worth the trip!
After Bill and I made our selections and paid for them, we headed back to our car. Bill asked me if I wanted to drive. I said that I would rather he did. I think the Spirit intervened on that decision.
We left the market, heading east on US 35. Just a few miles down the road, we both were stunned when we saw that a red pickup truck was heading right for us. For whatever reason, the driver had left the westbound lane and was coming right for us in the eastbound lane. And fast! I screamed. Thankfully, Bill made a brilliant decision in the fraction of an instant to move into the westbound lane. The truck sped past us on our right and headed into the grass. Did the driver fall asleep? Was s/he impaired by alcohol or drugs? We don’t know. After hitting a traffic sign and speeding through the grass on our side of US 35, the truck then veered back across the road, then off the road and into the grass on the other side of US 35. In the end, the truck ended up overturned in the middle of US 35. We called 911, and emergency vehicles were on their way in no time. Since we have not seen any reports in the Dayton Daily News about the accident, we are hopeful that the driver survived.
Our lives are crazily contingent. We don’t have to experience a near-head-on collision to know that. All we have to do is live through a pandemic. That said, this moment for us really brought it home. It was close.
Without cost we have received and without cost we are to give. Our very lives are a ridiculous gift. Given for nothing. Just so that we might be. And so we are called to give. To give as if it is our last chance. And it very well may be.
Let us not think of the cost of giving to our friends, neighbors, strangers in this time of such intense need. We don’t deserve the lives we have. We don’t deserve what we have. We haven’t earned it. It’s all God’s grace. Let us respond to God’s grace with grace. Amen.
- Spencer Hargadon