Mosaic

A one-piece puzzle. That would be pretty dumb. And boring. Probably wouldn’t be considered a puzzle at all. Just a monstrosity. My offspring loves playing with these wooden puzzles with big pieces at the downtown library. Even the easiest ones have something like FOUR pieces as opposed to ONE.

We humans easily fall into the temptation to be all things to all people. Which can usually mean we’ll be mediocre at a lot of things but not excellent at anything.

It would be utter nonsense if our fair mother city had only one ministry to the poor. That ministry would topple over from within. People would become numbers instead of names. It would have to be run like a business instead of a family.

One of the most covert operations assigned to me in the last few years involved me making contact with every ministry group in the mother city (and a few beyond) that would allow me. I have literally been in the doors of every ministry to the poor in town that I know of. Everything from pregnancy counseling to soup kitchens, orphanages to mom-n-pop church food closets and beyond.

During this mission I discovered that the CEO gave me one of the most unique views of benevolent-type ministries in the mother city. And I report this with no judgement as my data findings exposed my own doings of the past. Each organization had blinders on causing them to not see the other organizations in town. Seriously. It was as if they were convinced that they were the only ones doing this kind of work. And then I realized that’s exactly how I was when I was in their shoes. Oh sure, I knew there were other ministries in town, but I might offer critical words towards them. “XYZ Ministry doesn’t do it this way like us, etc.” Why does it always sting when you see something in someone else...which ends up being yourself? Forgive me and change my heart God.

But despite blinders, the CEO will make sure things get done anyway. Every single group in town has its own niche. And a very necessary niche I might add. And every single group seems to meet a need that otherwise wasn’t being met. My most favorite example is downtown in the mother city. On one city block (maybe it’s one and a half) is THREE ministries that all seem to fit together somehow...and I’d bet money they didn’t sit in a room and plan that. Breakfast On Beech Street (B.O.B.S.), housed by the Disciples of Christ group, not only serves a cooked breakfast (a very good one), but also hands out a sack lunch for the road M-F. Then City Light, run by the Baptists, serves a lunch throughout the week among many other things. Then behind them is the Presbyterian food pantry that gives away groceries every Tuesday. Hot breakfast, sack lunch saved for dinner, lunch in the mess hall, then groceries for the weekend. If you’re downtown you ain’t going hungry.

That mosaic must have been placed by the CEO himself. I bet it makes a picture of the Kingdom.