More opportunities to fail

I recently started volunteering at a local rescue mission helping out in the kitchen. Something that I've done in the past with youth groups or a Saturday morning serving event in High School, but I never really once gave it a second thought as far as something to sign up for and start doing on my own.  That is until two months ago when Phil and I moved to Raleigh. Without many friends or activities to distract us we were both quickly convicted of the fact that our faith was rather lifeless. 
James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Today was my 2nd shift and as I was walking to the front door there was a lady with a walker making her way to the front door from the other end of the sidewalk. She got to the stair just before me and as I thought to myself that I should probably ask her if I could carry her walker up the stairs for her, she folded it up, turned it to the side and proceeded up the stairs with one hand on the railing and one hand on the walker. My second thought was then "well she looks like she's got it under control" and I skipped up the stairs and turned around to hold the door for her. When she finally reached me at the door, I was not greeted with a weary but grateful thank you, but rather a harsh and bitterly sarcastic "Thanks for helping me...(insert the name of the Lord)". Immediately all the good will that I had carried with me up to that doorstep, ready to do anything they asked of me in that kitchen, was shattered. The fact that perhaps this lady was perpetually snarky, or that she was just in a particularly bad mood at that moment did not matter. I had come to that place to serve in the name of Christ, and before I had even made it through the door I had failed to even offer relief to her. 
I was rendered completely and utterly ashamed and speechless by her remark, and all I could do was slowly walk past her, not to mention all the other witnesses, toward the table where the volunteer name tags and sign-in sheet are located, sign my name, and adorn the tag that said to everyone who would look at me that I was there to help. 


I've never felt like such a blatant hypocrite, I cannot, at the moment, think of another time in my (be it brief thus far) adult life that I have been so ashamed of myself. Now, I know I have a tendency to be a little dramatic, but stick with me here. This situation can be looked at in two ways. 1) I made a clear mistake in the name of ministry and failed to lend a helping hand and the lady was bold enough to call me out on it.  2) I did what almost anyone would have done and therefore her reaction to me was rude and uncalled for.
I choose the first scenario because...well because that's how I felt right then and there and this is the lesson that I learned. As a follower of Christ I have been called to see people and situations in a different light. Being a Christian almost always requires a reaction to a situation that is contrary to what the majority of society would do. All too often, I fail, we fail. 
SO 
 Here's to more opportunities to show love to our neighbors. Here's to being criticized for being over dramatic about opportunities to minister. Here's to learning valuable lessons from each inevitable human, failure. Here's to simply possessing the ability to love others better than ourselves, because He loved us more than His own life.  

John 13:35  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. 

~Christie