This morning at my neighborhood Starbucks, a homeless woman in a wheelchair came in. The staff treated her with respect, offered to help her get into the restroom, and gave her a cup of hot coffee.
At 6AM on Wednesday mornings at this particular Starbucks, a group of four to six men meet. They pull two tables together, sit there, and gab as they drink coffee for an hour. It’s the one day during the week when I occupy a table at the other end of the cafe, because of the closeness of my usual seat to them.
However, on this Wednesday they had an uninvited guest, the homeless woman. When she exited the restroom, she pulled her wheelchair up close to the men’s tables and scooted over into one of the empty seats that was awaiting the arrival of one of their regulars. The dynamics of the group changed at that point. What was intended to be another round of their typical Wednesday morning chattering had the result of scattering. After about 15 minutes of the woman sitting with them at their tables and looking like she was feeling right at home, the group of four men took their leave. It was only 6:20.
Before her arrival, she had had an encounter with a couple of law enforcement officers outside the cafe, had wheeled herself away, but then had come back. At about 6:40, one of the officers came back, had a chat with her, and then guided her to the exit doors. I held the door open for her to maneuver her wheelchair to the outside. Although I’m not involved in the field of mental health, because of her chattering to herself and the chaotic state of the restroom after she had used it, I had the feeling that she had some form of mental illness.
And then, five minutes after her exit, the group of four men came back and gathered around their tables once again to resume the weekly chatter.
I considered what I had seen and heard. What did the situation communicate? Why was I left with a feeling of uncomfortableness?
First, the positive. The Starbucks staff was kind and considerate. They showed hospitality to the guest who had been burdened with multiple life challenges. They did what they could. Even the group of four men was respectful, but when it was apparent that she was seeing her visit to their tables as more than a “Hi! How are you?”, they made their escape.
Most of us are uncomfortable with intrusions into our normal living routines. We gravitate toward the familiar, the expected, and the planned-on. The problems of our society and world are so often simply seen as problems…out there, somewhere else, to be handled by others. Whether it be a wheelchair-bound homeless woman, a migrant crisis, a mass shooting, or even an autoworkers’ strike, we are often at a loss as to how to respond. We crave normalcy. We cringe about the irregular.
Truthfully, the Starbucks encounter with the homeless lady was a no-win situation. She wasn’t asking for help and was probably simply looking for a place to get warm for a while. Although we don’t like to admit it, the only answers we have for some of the situations in life are to be kind, respectful, and seek the Lord’s help in knowing how to respond.
Jesus was criticized for hanging out with “sinners.” He was scoffed at for healing the blind, the lame, and the ostracized lepers. For us, when the unexpected enters our arena of life or sits down at our table, it requires prayer and then a question to consider: What would Jesus do?
Words from WW Blog 