The girls and I have been watching Little House on the Prairie. My niece has the entire series on DVD. And we've been slowly (sometimes not-so-slowly) going through the each Season's Episodes. "Willy go sound the alarm! Tell every man you can get to meet us at the old well."
Mr. Olson yelled this as he began to run around his storeroom gathering supplies.
Camera pans to little Willy, sprinting to the little church/school house to ring the bell. A bell's toll that would bring men from all over their county.
Farmers would drop their hoe, leaving their crops unfinished. Woodcrafters would stop building the very house whose completion will bring money to feed their family. Mr. Olson would give equipment off his own store's shelves, essentially taking whatever profit he would have made and giving it away.
All because there was a need. All because someone sounded the alarm.
They were a community. A group of stranger brought together by two things: a love for the wilderness and a spirit of adventure that brought them to unclaimed land.
Yet they allowed this commonality to bind them. to make them family.
To the extent that, when a need arose, they worked together. Even into the middle of the night. giving up food, time spent with their own family, profit, and sleep.
Simply because someone needed them.
My mind seems completely incapable of seeing something like this...of being emotionally moved by something like this...without asking myself how I would react if I were a part of their community.
...without stepping back and taking a good look at how I do react as a part of my present-day community.
Do my friends know they can count on me like this? that I would drop everything to come to their aid in the face of tragedy? Have I gone out of my way to make this clear? to show, not by words, but by actions that I willl their need as my own?
Does my church family know this? People who may not hang in the same circle I do, but who worship with me on a weekly basis. who sit beside me while we listen to pastors speak of mirroring Jesus.
But more so...do people not close to me know this? people who are only bound to me because we're neighbors. or because we go to the same library. or because I happen to the be the person nearest in proximity to them at the moment need arises.
If someone were to Sound the Alarm, making it known, on whatever level, that they were in need of help... what would my reaction be? Would I be more caught up in the fact that my work will go unfinished? that I may lose some precious sleep? that my bank account may suffer their lack.
Or would I arm myself with Christ's compassion and step out? regardless of the cost to myself?
I ask. but I'm not sure I want to answer. I know my heart's hope. but I'm not sure I want to confess my action's proof. or lack thereof.
"They will know you by your love."
Oh Jesus, may I make You known, Lord, in my every deed. in my positioning myself to serve. even when it may cost me.
Tune my ear to the Alarm...that I might be your feet. the feet that run to comfort those in need.
