True Forgiveness For Those Who Humble Themselves

Mark Strand tells of an experience that occurred following his first year of college.  His dad and mom had left for vacation, and Mark wrecked their pickup truck, crumpling the passenger-side door.  Returning home, he parked the truck.  When his dad returned home and saw the damage, Mark acted surprised and denied any knowledge of the accident.  Mr. Strand then asked the hired man about it, and to Mark's delight, the man admitted he was responsible.  He had heard a loud noise while passing the truck with the wings of the cultivator up, and now he assumed he had caused the damage.

But the weeks that followed were torturous as Mark struggled with his guilty conscience.  He repeatedly considered telling the truth, but was afraid.  Finally one day he impulsively blurted it out.

"Dad, there's something I need to tell you."

"Yes?"

"You know that pickup door?  I was the one who did it."

Dad looked at me.  I looked back at him.  For the first time in weeks I was able to look him in the eyes as the topic was broached.  To my utter disbelief, Dad calmly replied, "I know."

Silent seconds, which seemed like hours, passed.  Then dad said, "Let's go eat."  He put his arm around my shoulder, and we walked to the house, not saying another word about it.  Not then, not ever.

- Mark Strand, "I Couldn't Forget That Door," Decision (December 1996)

A Kind Act, A Humble Gift

On Friday nights, volunteers from Bridgetown Ministries, led by Marshall Snider, help the homeless people gathered under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon. In addition to providing hot meals, shaves, and haircuts, some of the volunteers wash the homeless people’s feet. Tom Krattenmaker, a writer for USA Today, was stunned when he saw that, calling it “one of the most audacious acts of compassion and humility I have ever witnessed.”

This group of society’s outcasts had their bare feet immersed in warm water, scrubbed, dried, powdered, and placed in clean socks. One man reported with a smile, “I can’t find the words to describe how good that felt.”

Krattenmaker later wrote, “Washing someone’s feet is an act best performed while kneeling. Given the washer’s position, and the unpleasant appearance and odor of a homeless person’s feet, it’s hard to imagine an act more humbling.”

The leader of Bridgetown Ministries prepares volunteers for this ministry by saying, “When you go out there tonight, I want you to look for Jesus. You might see him in the eyes of a drunk person, a homeless person.”

In the midst of fundamentalists' numerous condemnations and atheists' attack on monotheistic religion, Krattenmaker concluded, "Perhaps what happens Friday nights under the Burnside Bridge can be a reminder. While the fighting over religion drags on, let's remember that many, many people around the world — some who count themselves among the true believers, some who don't — are living up to the religious ideal. They're helping the needy, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, even washing their feet."

 — Tom Krattenmaker, “A Witness to What Faith Can Be,” USA Today (December 18, 2006)