LINDA & MINNIE

We certainly weren’t expecting company when we answered the front door that evening at 8. Not the usual time for people making house calls.  Opening the door we met a small-framed blond woman wearing shorts and an LSU T-shirt. She nervously explained that she lived a few doors down and had been looking for her yellow cat. She knew that we had left around the time he disappeared and worried that he might have jumped in the back of our truck when we left.  Maybe we’d seen it or had found it in our truck.   She was grasping at straws, but we understood perfectly how it feels to worry over the loss of a beloved pet. Wringing her hands, she explained how she had searched the surrounding area for six weeks, looking in garage windows, calling his name, and always scanning the streets she drove hoping against hope to spot an orange streak or hear a familiar meow.  We were her last hope to shed some light on his disappearance and give her peace to move on. Finally we asked if we could pray with her. She was more than happy to. She told us Linda. And her cat was Minnie (yes, she knew it was weird that he male cat was called Minnie, but she’d thought he was a girl when she first found him).  So we stood there on the porch, mosquitos buzzing around us, and prayed for Minnie and Linda.

   The whole encounter lasted only about ten minutes. It wasn’t earth-shattering or anything big.  And yet it was important to Linda.  It doesn’t take long or a great effort to simply listen to someone. It doesn’t require much more than asking, “Could we pray with you?”  Jesus commanded us to show love to one another. To take time to listen to their hurts. To celebrate their happiness. To pray with them. To dry a tear. To give a few moments of time so they can grieve and maybe begin to heal.  As missionaries, it is easy to get caught up in crossing the causeway into the “hood” to gut and build and win souls. And that is gloriously exciting stuff, but it really is about living each day on the lookout for the Lindas who just need a moment of our time.