I was thirsty, and you...

I just got my carpets professionally steam cleaned. It cost me about 7 World-Vision-Kid-Months. It's a troubling thing that in our society we can justify spending money to make our carpets look nicer over providing basic essentials to a child who has none. But we're trying to get our condo cleaned up for selling, so in reality, it was a necessary evil. I guess I could have tried putting pictures of sponsored children over the stains and told prospective buyers "this is what I did with the money instead." In the current Calgary market though, I don't think that would help us get-it-sold.

As interesting as I'm sure my carpet cleaning story is to you though, what I really wanted to talk about was what happened after. Carpet-cleaning guy came downstairs after he finished, literally soaked with sweat. Apparently manual labor involving piping-hot steam on a summer day can do that to a fellow.

I thought, "I should offer this guy a drink."

Then I thought, "But I'm going to have to sit here and talk with him, and I don't feel like it."

Funny how something as simple as giving someone a glass of water can be so difficult to do. It's not like we have to walk a couple miles to draw water from a well. But having to stop for a few minutes and interact with a stranger is so, well, uncomfortable. I'd rather just sit all by my lonesome. We exist in a society that drives us to isolate so much that, in spite of our basic need for relationships, we're more comfortable being alone. It's lonely. Sad. But safe. Reminds me of a line from one of my all-time favorite movies:

In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

A couple months ago, Phoebe and I were walking home from the gym when we passed a homeless man who asked for a drink of water. I was carrying a half empty disposable bottle (as opposed to my usual security blanket, er, I mean carcinogenic, er, Nalgene bottle). But I quickly said "No" and walked right past him like I always do.

Fortunately, 10 steps later I realized how stupid that was. Jesus' words suddenly slapped me in the face so hard I could feel it:

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink - Matthew 25:35

I was already well hydrated. And I was literally a block from my home, where there was water-a-plenty to be had from the tap. Cold. Clean. With a Brita-filter on top. I probably wasn't even going to finish drinking that bottle before I poured it down the sink and took it to the recycling bin. I may have even been too lazy for that and just thrown it in the trash. This guy on the other hand was probably parched. Just finding a drink of water was hard for him. He didn't have access to a kitchen, fridge, garden hose, or even a bathroom sink.

Realizing the error of my ways, I turned around, ran back, handed him the bottle and a sheepish smile. He blessed me gratefully, and I returned to my walk home, undoubtedly more grateful for the exchange than even he was. Something so simple. I'm ashamed I didn't react that way instinctively.

Back to today. I bit the bullet and mustered up the social courage to offer carpet guy a drink. He accepted gratefully. We made small talk about weekend plans and Tiger Woods. He took my money. I've had better interactions :)

But it was something so simple. I even went the extra mile and gave him juice instead of just water. It was really watered down though. Does that still count?