The Comfort Zone

You never know what others are capable of doing.

Speeding to give a speech my car's blindsided at 37th and Whitaker Streets by a woman attending to her baby in the car seat, knocking my car on the porch of the house on the corner.

Climbing out the tiny red Toyota, I find my finger's broken and as I stand there examining it, Mom and Baby speed away in an old blue Impala.

Sighing I sit on the side walk holding my finger.

"Hey Rev, you okay?"

It's a homeless guy I know appearing from nowhere as homeless guys are prone to do.

"Did you see that?" I ask referring to the wreck.

"Yeah," he replies sitting beside me making certain I'm alright.

"I saw it too Rev," a large black man says parking his stuffed grocery cart on the sidewalk and taking a seat on my other side.

"She ran the Stop sign and plowed right into you."

"Knocked  your cute little car right on this porch ... what are the odds?"

"Surprised you didn't go the front door."

Looking at both, I tell them how glad I am they saw everything.

At that moment the sirens of the Police cars wail in the distance.

"Uh, we gotta go Rev," they say jumping up. "Glad you're okay."

"Hey I need a witness," I remind them.

"Hmmm, we don't do Court Rev." says the Grocery cart pusher.

"Or the police," adds my friend.

When the officers arrive it's just me and my broken finger.

But had it been worse I know they would have remained taking care of me. After all they came out of the shadows to make sure I'm okay in the first place. Out of the shadows is out of their comfort zone.

So last night when I received a message of a familiar painting with no caption, I wasn't certain why.

"Nice," I reply, "Enjoy!" ... "WAIT! DID YOU PAINT THAT?"

He did.

Who knew?

I thought he was a repair man.

Shows you what I know.

That's life though isn't it?

It's much better when we crawl out of our comfort zones and share the gifts of which we're capable.