Presidential hopefuls take the debate stage to brag about their accomplishments and bluster about the incompetencies of their opponents. At the same time, a frail elderly woman lies in bed waiting for hours for someone to come change her and clean her up; no one asks her about her accomplishments in her life before age and disease took over her body.
Congress opens up another investigation into a politician’s corrupt actions so they can yell at each other for months and then come up with nothing to show for their time and taxpayer dollars. At the same time, an elderly woman with advanced dementia cries out and screams all day for months and months; she no longer has any words and her cries are the only way she can communicate.
Political theorists and economic experts go on television, arguing and yelling over each other about who’s to blame for inflation and unemployment. At the same time, an elderly man who was just transferred from one nursing home to another waits for his belongings to be brought, but the facilities and social workers argue about whose responsibility it is to move the three boxes that contain all his earthly possessions…and so he goes without clothes or undergarments for two weeks.
Government officials and university boards try to define the seemingly elusive and confusing issue of gender and enact laws which make it a criminal offense to refer to someone by the wrong pronoun. At the same time, in nursing homes across America, there are no laws mandating how many staff should be caring for our most vulnerable and helpless citizens.
Another mega-church builds a swanky new country-club-like building, complete with a coffee bar that rivals Starbucks, a rec center, and a game room with brand new X-boxes and flat screen tv’s for the youth. At the same time, over sixty percent of nursing home residents at the care home down the street never receive a single visitor and spend their final days abandoned and alone.
Nursing home residents just happen to be the people I see every week, but you can insert most any forgotten, voiceless, suffering people into the above scenarios. Instead of the elderly lady in her bed, it could be the baby in Haiti who has been hungry for so long that she just stopped crying because her little body knows that it’s not her day of the week to eat. It could be the eight year old boy yanked from his home at 2am who now has to sleep on the floor of an office until a foster home can be found for him. It could be the homeless military veteran who served his country honorably but now suffers from debilitating PTSD and is addicted to painkillers after his injury, his life in ruins simply because of the sacrifice he made for the citizens who pass by him and scoff at him everyday.
I’m not against politicians having meaningful debates, nor am I against Congress fulfilling its duties to hold bad actors accountable. I’m not against pondering and theorizing why our economy is struggling. And I’m certainly not against mega-churches building nice buildings. What I AM against is the frenzy that usually comes along with all of these things. The political issues of the day, the societal shifts that are taking place, the latest and greatest new programs and ideas at church—all these things so easily consume us. They seem critically important. And yet, in reality, they matter so little. They matter so little in light of the people around us who are hurting, who are lonely, who are defenseless, who have no voice.
In Matthew 25 we read: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
When our life on earth is over and we stand before Jesus, the things we did for “the least of these” is all that will matter. They will matter because they are the evidence of a life that was surrendered to Christ, a heart that longed to see people the way Christ sees them. I watch the news and my spirit is stirred to bemoan the failings of our leaders and self-righteously choose sides on whatever is the current soapbox issue of the day. And then….then I walk through the doors of the nursing home, behind which are residents who are invisible to the rest of the world, shut away because they have the audacity to need 24/7 care, which has somehow rendered them less than important, less than useful, less than human….less than. Less. Least of these.
Oh God, would you turn my eyes and heart from worthless things? Would you fill me with compassion so I don’t overlook, pass by, or walk away from those who have been deemed less than?