'Fessing Up and the Kindness of Strangers

By Sunday morning last week, Richard got enough of the road cleared that I could walk up to the highway, and a man from church picked me up. Richard said he needed to stay home and keep working on it until it was clear enough for us to drive out.

One man from church called and offered to come with chain saws and help him, but Richard said he could manage okay.

And when I came home, he had indeed managed to get most of the last blockage cleared. This was a tree that had broken at the top and was dangling over the road, held in place by tangle of wild grape vines. After he finished cutting it down, I helped him pick up the branches and throw them off to the side.

And that left me with a dilemma. On Sunday afternoons, I spend an hour (from 2 to 3) at the nursing home visiting Bob, a man from church who is a resident. There is not much exciting going on in Bob’s life. Sometimes the visits are sort of boring, and I am not always eager to go. Last Sunday I wanted to use the excuse that the driveway was blocked or that I was too tired after helping Richard to clear it to avoid going to visit him.

Except that by 1:00, the driveway was clear, I was not tired, and I knew not to go for those reasons would be lying. So I went. As soon as I walked into his room, Bob said “I am so glad you come to visit me.”

Were those coals being heaped on my head? Yup. I think so.  And tomorrow I believe will have something specific during the time of “Prayer and Confession” that is part of the morning service.

Some years ago the city brought a water line onto our property when they installed a fire hydrant further up the road. They said it was to flush the line if needed. The line has a metal pipe with a curved top that sticks a few feet up above ground and a valve. Should our house ever catch fire, the volunteer fire department will have a ready supply of water to put it out.

A fairly large tree fell and partially landed on the pipe, with another branch sort of holding it up a little so the full weight wasn’t on the pipe. Richard was worried about it, because he wasn’t sure how to cut the tree to keep the full weight of it off the pipe.

And then on Thursday, George, the husband of one of the women at the aerobics class, just showed up with his two chain saws and started to work on finishing cutting the trees that were down and one that was still leaning across the road. He took care of the big tree that had fallen on the pipe. Richard has trouble asking for help and accepting help, and at first  he was very annoyed with me because he thought I had arranged it (I hadn’t), but by the time George left, he was very grateful that George came to help him. I hope it will make it easier in the future for Richard ask for help.