Stones there forever

Tonight when we went with our staff member J.P. for last reflection, he took us to the little church where he had been a member. As he spoke he talked of one of those passages from the Old Testament, from Joshua, it seems pretty far afield from our experience. It was the one were Joshua took 12 people from the 12 tribes to take stones and made a monument of sorts, to be there forever.

Then J.P. asked us after passing out small stones, to write a word or two on the stone based on our experience in the week and we were to then go leave it in the park, to stay there forever. So we took Sharpie pens we took the stones and wrote a word or two, agape was one, privilege was another, and also justice. Another was simply love.

I chose "walk humbly." It's from this snippet from Micah, "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

This came out of a discussion we had after cleaning the gunk off the tables and chairs in the cafeteria of a transitional housing center run by the Salvation Army on the north side. The tables had a little edge on them, where the gunk had built up, and we found that plastic picnic works were the perfect tool to clean the gunk off.

Our volunteer guide from DOOR later pointed out that to take the take a week off, drive to Chicago and clean gunk off of cafeteria tables with a picnic fork is, in fact, pretty humble walking.

We all sort of agreed that kids who are homeless still deserve to eat their breakfast off of a clean table. Is cleaning it for them "humble?" Not sure what the answer is, but we do know that there is a place for people who volunteer to do the kind of service that isn't very glamorous.

In Humboldt Park in Chicago, there is a stone now with that idea on it. The Sharpie marking will fade, but that stone will be there forever.