Meals from the Heartland 2014!

Icebreaker

I recently attended a seminar on cultural diversity where the leader opened up with an “icebreaker exercise” in which every participant was dealt one playing card face down on the table in front of them.  We were then instructed to pick the card up without looking at it and hold it against our forehead so that everyone else would know what the card was but we would not.  While holding the card in this manner, we then circulated about the room.  The kicker was that if you came upon an individual that was holding a face card you were to treat them as a great friend.  If the card was between a six and a ten you were to simply treat them politely and if the card was anything else you were to make it known to them that you did not want to associate with them.  As someone who was dealt a four, I soon found myself as someone that everyone wanted to avoid.

Although the exercise was relatively simple, the lesson it taught was far from trivial.  As one who had the misfortune of having been dealt a low card, I was shunned by every other person in the room.  If the exercise had continued beyond the short period of time that it did, I surely would have appreciated someone breaking the rules and coming to talk to me.

Now obviously walking around with a four of clubs on my forehead and having people pretend to not talk civilly to me for five minutes is probably a hurdle in my life that I can overcome.  But what if the thing that sets someone apart from others has more serious consequences. 

The question that each of us needs to answer is:  By what set of rules are we going to play this “real” version of the game? It can be quite tempting to follow the “icebreaker” rules and ignore the less fortunate choosing instead to focus our attention inwardly.  This approach can be all the more enticing when the people in need may look, think or act differently than ourselves.

Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran pastor who serves what many would call a “non-mainstream” urban congregation in Denver and she wrote a very insightful book describing her own faith journey entitled “Pastrix”.  (Caution to those who may choose to read the book as the language may range in some instances from PG-13 to R.)  In the book, her husband, who is also a Lutheran pastor, commented that “…every time we draw a line between us and others, Jesus is always on the other side of it.”

Our church last week wrapped up its second annual campaign to feed starving people around the world in cooperation with Meals from the Heartland.  In doing so, we were able to significantly increase the amount of funds raised and the number of meals produced above the levels of our first campaign and beyond what we had reasonably hoped to achieve this year.  Reaching the number of meals that we did was certainly gratifying as what it means most importantly is that more people who are starving will now be able to get something to eat. 

But the numbers are also a mark of the generous sacrifice of time and money by a whole lot of people who refused to draw a line between themselves and others.  The support of the congregation for the fundraising activities of the campaign was both broad and deep and I will never cease to be amazed by the tireless efforts of the members of our planning team.  To top it all off, on the day of the event over two hundred people showed up on one of the first nice Saturday mornings following a rather challenging winter to package meals in a crowded room for complete strangers.  This cannot be described as anything but an act of love!

All of which should go to erode at least some of the cynicism about our fellow humans that seems so prevalent today.  To be in the packaging room that Saturday and seeing Cub Scouts and 4-H club members alongside grandparents and people of every age in between, working with such fun and enthusiasm, was to know that goodness exists and can prevail in this world.  

If you find yourself being dealt a card in life that you wish that you could discard but can’t, have faith that God can lead you to people who want to help you.  As the Meals from the Heartland campaign showed, we can all make the world a little better place by simply following Jesus’ command in Matthew 7:12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” That is, after all, the real icebreaker.

Mike Powers, WDMUMC member