40 Days of Embracing Uncertainty - Day 6 (for Tuesday, March 3)

Yesterday, I went to the final performance of the Worthington High School musical “Once Upon a Mattress” – the story of the search for a suitable bride for a prince. It’s a musical comedy with many underlying themes. One of the themes is “who is in and who is out” as the diabolical queen mother makes every attempt to stop a princess candidate from becoming her son’s bride because she deemed her unworthy. In this particular production, the cast does a fabulous job in playing their parts – especially the person who plays the princess (she is a member of one of my churches and does a terrific job of acting and singing).

Today’s devotion from the booklet “Embracing the Uncertain” is also about “who is in and who is out”.  The devotion begins with the story of the disciples of Jesus telling him about a man who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus, but they didn’t know him and he wasn’t part of their group.  They told him to stop.  Jesus simply told them that no one who does a miracle in his name can say anything bad about Jesus in the next moment “…for whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40).  The writer then challenges us to consider widening our circle to include others who may not be like us.

I was thinking about this wider circle and who is in and who is out as I began my volunteer role delivering Meals by Wheels this week.  Today’s route had eight stops.  I only knew one of the persons on my list – a 90 year-old man whose wife has passed away nearly four years ago.  He is a member of one of the churches I serve and (in all honesty) I have not been out to visit him as often as I perhaps needed to. 

That’s on me, I know.  Certainly if he called me for a visit, I’d be there in a minute.  If I had such a list called “Here is the people who I need to visit whether they call me or not”, he would be on it.  As it is, I have no such list and he is on the outside, looking in.  As I visited with him in his living room, I felt bad that I hadn’t seen him for a while.  A bit guilty, even.  I need to widen my circle.

Perhaps we all need to widen our circle when it comes to including those who might feel left out.