To love a brother …

My family spends roughly a month each winter in the Bahamas. My grandmother has spent her winter's there for nearly 30 years and our family has created a community of wonderful friends. This year our stay was been bitter sweet as a dear family friend was in his final days after a long fight with cancer. Phil has no biological family on the island. He needed 24 hour care on an island with limited health care options. Sounds like a recipe for disaster huh? We can all take a guess at what his last days looked like, right? Poor Phil, alone in a second or third rate hospital, just waiting to die. If you have any experience with hospitals in second world countries, you know it's not a pretty picture. And this would indeed have been Phil's destiny if it were not for Christian brotherly love.

You see on our beautiful little island, the concept of the church family is deeply rooted in the culture. Your church is not somewhere you go for an hour on Sunday morning. Your church is who you are. It is your community, your friends, your home and your family. So thanks to the love of his church family, Phil did not die alone in a hospital. He was at home, cared for 24 hours a day by registered nurses whom his Pastor found to care for him. Phil's day time nurse was a lovely woman by the name of Mrs. Beckels. Mrs Beckels works the night shift at the hospital, and for the last month of Phil's life she took care of him from 8 -4, seven days a week. She bathed and feed Phil, and kept him company when he was coherent. She also put up with a lot. Phil was not a sweet little old man, appreciative for her help. He was a tough Englishman with the manners and mouth from his former days as a sailor. He just as frequently cursed Mrs. Beckels as he thanks her.

So far, you're probably thinking, what's so amazing about a nurse taking on a little side job and putting up with a grumpy old man? Well the thing is, this was not a job for Mrs. Beckels. She didn't take a dime from Phil. She said it was her honor to love a brother in his final hours. The even more amazing thing was that she didn't really know Phil while he was well. They went to the same church, but they were not friends. Mrs. Beckels' faith called her to love this grumpy dying man just as Christ loved us. It was beautiful to see. What was even more beautiful, was that Mrs. Beckels was not alone, there were other volunteers who took on eight hour blocks every day of the week or who just came to sit and visit with Phil.

Several of my Jewish and un-churched friends, who were on the island for the holidays, asked me if this was "normal". Was this what churches do? I desperately wanted to answer "yes!" For the Scriptures teaches, that you will know us by our love. But of course I had to answer a sad, "not really." I have the privilege to worship and work at a large suburban church. We have funding and members coming out of our ears. We build schools and clinics in Africa, we plant churches around Denver, we have programs and classes offered every day of the week. We do many great things as a church, but as a people, we don't love each other the way Phil's church does. We don't even come close. Why in a community that has so much, do we as a people give each other so little? I have been thinking a lot about this over the past few weeks. In a time in our country, when people are so desperately hurting; losing their jobs, their marriages and their health, I think it's really important to think about how we love people in Christ's name. So for the next week, I am going to share some thoughts about this. I hope that you too, will post a comment and share your ideas with everyone about how your family, or church, is caring for those around you.