New Orleans #2

Here is what happened on the last day we were in New Orleans over Thanksgiving.

Our day started out like normal. Get up and eat breakfast. Have a devotional and then head out to a house to muck. I was told, before we headed out, the owner of the house we were going to was traveling 3 hours to meet us. So, I round everyone up going to this house. We begin traveling excited that we will have a home owner but also excited this was the last day of work. We arrive at the house. The father of the home owner was already there. I parked the van and trailer and began talking to the father. He began to walk around the inside of the house with me.

Let me preface the rest of the story. Normally we would work in houses that either the people didn't have the money to do anything with, the people were below the poverty line, or the people were elderly and couldn't do the work at all (we even worked in a house that the elderly home owner had just died a week earlier).

Now back to the story. The home is a two story home with a nice facade of brick on the side. I walk through the front door. There is a nice room off to my right. Beautiful piece of antique furniture. The stairs are a few steps in front of me and to the right. Another hallway leads to left and goes into the master bedroom. I continue to walk straight ahead. I walk into a beautiful living room area that has nice wood paneling on the walls, leather furniture, 70 inch HDTV, surround sound, wet bar in the corner, another beautiful piece of antique furniture. There are two doors leading out of the living room area. One leads to a room with a slate pool table and two 5 ft. Browning safes. The other leads to the kitchen, dining room. There is a sun room attached to the back of the house. More beautiful antique furniture in the other rooms. The kitchen tabe must have been breath taking before the flood. The upstairs had four rooms. You could tell that it had been looted.
I begin to put people to work. The father tells me that his daughter (homeowner) should arrive pretty soon and that she wanted to save as much as possible. I am okay with that but it really slows down our work. The daughter finally arrives. She begins to go through EVERYTHING. We try to save as many of the antiques as possible. Here is where the day begins to take a different way. All of my volunteers, including myself, begin to get frustrated with the homeowners. They have plenty of money! They have a summer home in Alaska. They still have 10 of the 70 Tennesse Walkers alive. We are getting this big huge story of how they have nothing. Nothing! They continue to go through everything. A few of my teens in the youth group find another Browning safe. They find what were nice suits and a plethora of suits. Another group finds boxes and boxes of dress shirts still in their packaging (over 200). The wet bar had enough liquor to keep the alcohol flowing for days. The home owners keep asking me to make sure we do this and do that. Bear in mind that I have over 15 people working in this house during those times.

Then it happened. Through all the conversations about how they don't have any money, the boyfriend (2nd homeowner of the house) drops a $2,000 check donation to Hilltop. After I learn about it, I begin to have verbalize out loud while I am working that I am working for Jesus. I even made this catchy tune (it didn't catch though). My volunteers' attitudes continue to go down. The question everybody is thinking (Why are we here?) is actually being verbalize aloud. I try to keep everybody "working for Jesus".

I found myself not even desiring to talk to the owners. I even began to develop a arrogance in my service. My thoughts were very arrogant and not so nice. "Why the hell are we here?" "We could be out helping people who need help, but instead we are here." "These people don't appreciate what we are doing for them." "I want to serve the people who will appreciate it. Jesse find me another house." Those are just a few.

As I began to process the day and my attitude. I suck! In trying to serve and be like Christ, I found that my attitude and thoughts were not like Christ. Jesus died for everyone. Those that appreciate him and those that sadly will not know him until the end. Who am I to decide who needs help and who doesn't? Can't Jesus work with faith as small as a mustard seed? Who knows what the actions of a few volunteers (25+ by the end of the day) help encourage faith even in the rich? Jesus was right when he said that it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of Heaven. I saw that played out. They were the only family in about 40 houses mucked that were so attached to their things, that they could not let go even when they had the money to replace them.

I am still processing this day. I know that I have much to learn about serving with humility. I will say I was totally unready for it. My actions though good were trumped by my heart and arrogance.

Has anybody else experienced a day similar? I would love to hear how you handled it!