went downtown to do the yearly trek to the post office to bring some needed tax relief to the people doing last minute filing...
arrived loaded with 6 barrels of water bottles and hundreds of tax relief stamp booklets...when we arrive i noted things were different this year...protesters for 'say no to unfair tax' were there in force.
i approached the police and asked what was up...he commented they are here to protest and hand out pamphlets...
duly noted we moved down away from the protesters to give space between our groups...light turned red we gave away stamps and bottles of water to grateful people lining up in their cars to hand in their tax forms...comments like...are you guys the vineyard?...wow thanks...who are you guys?...vineyard drivers commented...wow you guys really do do the stuff you talk about...
principle...light turns red we hand out water and stamps...light turns green we stop...police were grateful that we honored their request...
after about an hour and a half of successful outreach...the protesters moved in mass to our spot...bummer...now instead of smiling open people...people seeing the huge 'say no to unfair tax' signs now rolled up windows and looked straight ahead...sooo we nixed the outreach gathered up the remaining stamps and headed out...
i went up to the group and asked where the leader was...a guy asked why?...good question...i mentioned that whenever there is more then one community group doing good things it might be nice to notice and to engage in some conversation before taking over another groups spot...he asked 'what would you have us do?' ...i replied, 'that whenever there is more then one community group doing good things it might be nice to notice and to engage in some conversation before taking over another groups spot' and just like i'm talking to you it would have been nice for someone to talk to our group...he then asked a similar question...i mentioned that saturday we pulled off a huge easter egg hunt and had some ruffled feathers and took note of what to do better next year...and commented it might be good in the future to notice other community groups...
point:ever attempted to do something right and good and yet do it wrong...doing the right thing the wrong way?...
the protesters were doing something right...but it came across wrong...looking how we are perceived by others is important...
how many church groups attempt to do the right thing the wrong way? i wonder...it makes me pause, ponder and think...hopefully i can learn to do the right thing the right way...
by the way we gave water to most of the grateful protesters...hopefully in a right way...
outward...
Steve
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