But as for the well-to-do man who sees his brothers in want but shuts his eyes—and his heart—how could anyone believe that the love of God lives in him? My children, let us not love merely in theory or in words—let us love in sincerity and in practice! 1 John 3:17-18
Panchita had a rough day yesterday. She has lots of rough days and lots of the time she pulls it off and laughs and tells Alan that he is sexy and gets down on her hands and knees and scrubs the calcified buildup on the shower.
But all week long she has had to take care of a crabby husband who is very whiny and bossy and was in the hospital for five days and has a huge open sore on his backside and she has to do his vegetable deliveries on top of all of her other work and Judy massaged her for two hours the other night because she has so much stress and she doesn’t know what to do and she is trying to cover for all of his bad business deals and then he did get robbed a month ago and that set him back a pretty penny and then Judy had borrowed Jack and Mary Anne’s vacuum and even though she has told Judy to be careful and only use it on the carpets and cat hair but Judy doesn’t know anything about sweeping and she vacuumed up a thread spool of Nicole’s and even though she changed and emptied all of the filters she still can’t get it to work and she doesn’t know how to get it to a shop to fix and maybe you or Alan could fix it because I don’t know anything about mechanics and why don’t you buy a vacuum like theirs and then I wouldn’t have to borrow it and Mary Anne always tells me to be careful and I am careful but that Judy never listens to me. And Panchita lost it and cursed her daughter and cursed the messy Voelkel family and cursed the life she’s leading and cursed her poverty.
And Max, who has spent a lot of his time serving, yes serving, long hours and mind-wracking creativity and trying one-more-thing really probably the very most in want people in America who have all pretty much done horrible things and said horrible things and think horrible things all day long, says, “Don’t take it personally.”
Judy doesn’t take it personally. Judy with the crippled hand who smiles big if you ask her to give you a little backrub I think because it makes people so very happy and maybe because it is a kind human touch that she can experience and of course, it’s much better than sweeping that she really doesn’t know how to do very well. Judy says that’s the way all of Panchita’s family talks when they get stressed and she consoled me not to take it personally. This is the way life is, sometimes it’s good and mostly it’s hard but that’s OK.
And I am well-to-do even though the little game I play at Fry’s is to get my percentage savings up to at least 40% and I win If it crosses 45% but it will never hit 50% because I buy bunches of bananas and they are never on sale so that messes things up. I am well-to-do in another way. I learned a lot from my daddy about how to bend your knees when you take corners on water skis and what a Stella Jay looks like and how to tell the difference between Ponderosa and Bristlecone pine trees, but I never learned big long lines of ugly curse words to use when things get hard. And even though my daddy had a hand-crafted paddle that he used when I didn’t tell the truth, he never whacked me upside the head. And my husband doesn’t lay in bed all day and scream at me. And I don’t juggle hospital and medicine bills and dread it when the phone rings because it’s almost always bad news and one more thing I have to do before I can fall into bed.
And sure enough so what if you love the people easy to love but may I never shut my eyes or shut my heart. Day after day, the same way that Panchita loves in all sincerity and practice, on her knees with a funny little smile on her lips and a long story just waiting to be heard.
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