Ruddy (05/18/2024)

What started as a simple upgrade in service has turned into a 12-day immersion in chaos, frustration, lack of capability, and sense of helplessness. I’ve developed an unhealthy dislike for my provider’s  AI troubleshooter who puts up all these hoops I must jump through before I can speak to a real person with social security number and a favorite color. I’ve learned to humor the real peoples’ insistence that they must check my service before they can help me. Do they really think I would go through all that trouble just for an afternoon chat with a stranger? But in my adventuresome exploits of late, there was one guy that was different. How I wish they could find a whole village with the same traits and hire them. His name was Ruddy.  

What made Ruddy different? Well, for starters, he spoke up clearly and slowly. I wasn’t straining to hear him nor to catch up. Perhaps he’d just started his shift, but he was joyful. There was something in that joy that assured me that Ruddy really cared. He was persistent. He listened to my take on what was wrong, checked a couple of things, and then proceeded to get me real help: a conversation with diagnostics, an earlier appointment for repair. Ruddy didn’t fix my problem personally, but Ruddy gave me hope that someone cared and help was on the way.

About two hours after I spoke to Ruddy, a service man, a real one with boots and tools showed up and diagnosed what was wrong. His name was David. He was at our home for two hours. And he managed to get things turned around. I so appreciated David, but I never forgot that it was because of Ruddy that I got help when I did.

What’s my point? Our modern world is full of hoops and hoopla that distract us or, even worse, derail us by making simple things so difficult that we just give up. But there are also good people out there who care, who are present to us and our struggles, who stay with us as we try to make our way. They are believers who know the LORD and who love the LORD well through their interactions with others.

Our own presence in this world makes a difference, one way or another. Will our presence contribute to the good of another’s journey? Will our presence, our words, our actions bring joy and hope to another? Will others see the LORD behind us, within us?

Not all conversions begin with Jesus talk. Often times, it begins with the simplest, sincerest loving kindness that make us stop, notice, appreciate, and seek the source of such goodness. This may sound strange to you, but after my conversation with Ruddy, I felt like the LORD had touched me through him, reassuring me. After my talk with Ruddy, I wanted to be a better representative of my all-present and all-loving LORD.

On this eve of Pentecost, as I say my prayers, I will ask for the Spirit’s help in being a person of joy and hope for those whom I encounter along the way. I will ask that I be given the tools to walk with others in loving kindness, in authentic concern. I will ask for help in bringing Christ to others and others to Christ one day at a time. I will ask for help in conveying Christ’s love to others in word but also in behavior.

And on this eve of Pentecost, I will thank the LORD for the gift of Ruddy on a dark and chaotic night.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.