Smoke Detector

Like a woman fanning a blaring smoke detector with her kitchen broom, blaming it for the burning dinner in her oven, I often focus energy on the pointless task. Other times, I am simply really late to the table.

Today while reading Robert Lupton’s Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, I discovered this:

ancient Hebrew wisdom describes four levels of charity 

a job for one in need without his knowledge that we provide it

work that the needy one knows we provided

an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need

a gift to a person with his full knowledge that we are the donor

So very often, I choose to gift a person with her full knowledge that I am the donor. I write a check or insist on a receipt. I drop off a meal or a box of clothing or a piece of hand-me-down furniture. I insist on paying for both our meals, every time we get together.

I carelessly wave the broom at the bleeping smoke detector rather than engaging the teacher and learning to cook.

Rw

I Brought This For You





Personal Recipe by Harley Schreiber
I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Think about the type of person you’d NEVER want to be 5 years from now. Write out your own personal recipe to prevent this from happening and commit to following it. “Thought is the seed of action.” HS