A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 27:12 "True Story"

Proverbs 27: 12     A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. The simple pass on and are punished.

Proverbs 27:12.  Last week, I took a call at the church office from a young lady in financial crisis. She was in her late 20’s with 3 children between 3 & 10 years old.   She had no job, no leads, no high school diploma, and no money, but she did have prior felony convictions.  She’d received food stamps and a welfare check but she lost all of that when she missed the appointments for the required job training.  They’d lost their section 8 apartment because she didn’t sign the lease renewal in time.  She didn’t sign the lease renewal because she was in jail for unpaid traffic tickets.   For reasons I don’t know no one in the lady’s family, including her own mother who lived a couple of miles, away would take her in.

On the day she called our church, this lady and her 3 children were being evicted from the flea-bag motel where they’d been crashing for the past several weeks because in the previous 2 days she hadn’t been able to come up with the $35.00 per night rent.

Now, when you get behind on the rent at a legitimate or semi-legitimate residence they put your stuff out when they put you out.   When  you get behind on the room rent at a flea-bag motel that focuses on shady and semi-homeless transients they put you out and keep your stuff until you pay them what you owe.

Whether you feel sympathy or anger toward this young mother the reality is that at the moment in her life that intersected mine, this family of one parent and 3 children quite literally had nothing but the clothes on their backs.  

I worked the phones and my contacts.  I activated this whole beautiful, hidden network of not-very-well-known people and organizations in Montgomery who have dedicated their lives to  helping folks they’ve never met.  We put together a package of help for the mother and her children.  There was safe, secure shelter and a plan for her to become employable and financially independent.  The process was going to be long and difficult, but Bam! Here it was.

All she had to do was call me back the next morning or walk the 1 mile distance from where we’d placed her for the night down to the church office.

No call, no contact the next day.  No call, no contact the morning after that.   Near the end of the business day, after 2 more days of “What happened to the lady you called us about?” phone calls from our ministry partners, she called me.

“What the crap happened?  We had you all set.  Why didn’t you call me back?  I tried to reach you and couldn’t find you.  What happened?”

“Oh, somebody paid for 2 more nights at the hotel.”

She squandered the chance to fix her life because she had a bed for 3 more days.  All of the fundamental problems in her life still existed.  Still no diploma, still no job, still no source of income, still 3 kids with no food and no means of buying groceries, still no idea how she’d even make it through the rest of June.

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. The simple pass on and are punished.

Now, this lady isn’t intellectually disabled.  She could see and articulate all the problems I’ve described.  She and I saw the same trouble, dangers, and difficulties.  Yet, instead of looking down the line and taking a rugged path out of her long-term situation, she chose to do nothing and stay on the same pitiful track.

Now, if I can get you to put down your righteous indignation for a moment, I’d like you to pick up a mirror.

How many things about yourself or your life do you hate?  How many sinful, self-destructive, counter-productive, or simply un-productive practices have become your habits?  

How many of those issues have you wanted to change---- for years?  

In that time you’ve connected with things, people, programs that really would have helped you fix that issue, but here you are still dealing with the same crap.

How many times did you walk away from the solution because for a couple of days the problem didn’t feel quite as bad?

How many heart-attack patients go back to pork ribs and french fries when they get out of the hospital because “I feel fine now”?

How many reconciled spouses go back to the club and infidelity because “Oh, we’re back together now”? 

How many churches lose their new members because after a season of growth, the culture of the church reverts back to the old mentality and practices that had put the ministry on its deathbed in the first place?

It’s stupid to keep going in the same direction when you’ve already seen that you’re going in the wrong direction.  Just because it feels a little easier doesn’t mean that it’s gotten any better. 

The best way is the long, hard row that leads out of your crap.

Stop!

Just stop it.

Suffer through the transition from the old, comfortable, and wrong into the new, unfamiliar, and difficult but right.  Let those who want to help you help you, but don’t be deterred when they don’t help you the way you want to be helped. 

Clearly your way hasn’t been that successful.  Try another way. 

You’re not alone, though you may not yet know the names of those God has already positioned to work with you. 

Connect with God’s network.  Let them connect you with His resources. 

Just don’t keep going this way.  You don’t want to see where you’ll end up.

----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116