The Light of Christ Shines

Discerning readers of The Shiloh Insider will have noticed that there was a two-week period in which no updates were made to the blog. The explanation of the gap is simple. I was on vacation. Instead of advertising the fact in The Shiloh Insider, I thought that a two-week hiatus from updates was far from the worst thing that may happen. Now, after a week of writing and another in sunny Mexico, I am back in the office and ready to resume posting to the blog.

It is always amazing to me how seemingly unrelated events come together and form a symbiotic whole from which we might interpret life more faithfully. One of those events occurred while in Cozumel. On a particular day of our vacation, our small group of five decided to rent a taxi, with driver, and travel around the island, seeing the sites, visiting some ruins, stopping at an eatery or two and generally just enjoying the scenery. Our driver's name was Juan. He was a gentleman of, say, 40-50 years of age. His van was decorated with cartoon characters and a few ubiquitous religious insignias. He provided a cooler of agua and cervesas, in case we wanted something to drink while traveling.

Before continuing with the story, I have to provide a contextual point. On Cozumel, in fact throughout much of Yucatan Mexico, the average wage per 10-hour day is $5.00. Our experience, after traveling to this part of the world several times over the past decade, is that these people work remarkably hard. One friend, Alfredo, works as the resort bell hop. Alfredo is likely in his early 70's, but lugs traveler's bags throughout the resort six days per week,10 hours per day. He does so with a constant smile and an open willingness to do whatever he can to make people happy. Every time we visit this resort, we warmly greet and generously tip Alfredo, telling him how much we appreciate his presence.

On our taxi excursion around Cozumel, we indeed stopped a few watering holes, saw every side of the 9 1/2 x 34 mile piece of land and visited a Mayan ruin. The most meaningful event of the day took place on the way back to the resort, however, as we simply riding in Juan's taxi.

Another contextual note becomes necessary at this point. On Cozumel, there are very few family-owned automobiles. The cars and vans are, by and large, taxis or shuttles. Families travel by scooter. We have seen as many as four family members, ranging from senior citizens to very, very small children, loaded on a scooter,

On our way back to the resort, while riding in Juan's taxi, we passed a young mother with a 2 or 3 year old daughter, standing aside a broken down scooter. As we passed the scene, Juan looked at me in the rear-view mirror. I understood and nodded. Juan wanted to stop to offer assistance to the young mother and her child. Juan pulled over and backed his taxi to the broken down scooter, explaining to the rest of the group that he noticed the young girl crying and the mother struggling to comfort her. By the time we arrived, the father of the young girl had arrived on a motorcycle to assist his family. Juan had a brief discussion with the father, after which it became clear that Juan had offered to provide a ride for the mother and young child in our van.

Juan explained, somewhat reluctantly, that he had offered the ride. Would we mind? It meant that our little group would be providing the ride, free of cost to them, and we would be slightly inconvenienced. No problem.

Juan invited the mother and daughter into the van. They rode with us into town, to a repair shop, where the father was to have brought the scooter. We dropped them off and shared smiles all around. This was a beautiful and generous act. It shone with the light of Christ. Juan was practicing the simplest of virtues. He went out of his way in order to assist someone in need. We were simply bystanders, an audience to Juan's act of kindness.

We returned from our trip very late Saturday night and attended the 7:00 p.m. worship service at Shiloh on Sunday. In the course of the service, as a regular feature of that worship experience, the participants discussed the theme of the texts and message. The facilitator asked why we are uncomfortable at times with those who so boldly demonstrate or talk about their faith. I was reminded of Juan. He never talked with us about his faith. Aside from some minimal iconography, we would have never guessed his religious persuasion. But we knew from what he did. He did not need to say a word about what he believed. Maybe we are made uncomfortable by the words about faith and what we believe instead of the simplicity of acts that demonstrate faith without having to say a word about them.

When we returned to the resort, we paid Juan and tipped him generously, about a week's worth of his average salary. He attempted to argue. I explained, best I could, that kindness has its rewards and that what he did for that young mother and child was a beautiful act. It was a fairly emotional parting.

It's funny, isn't it, how simple acts of kindness speak more profoundly than our words ever can? Strange, isn't it, that we spend so much time and effort on the details and overlook the simplicity of a beautiful act? Thanks, Alfredo, Juan and the amazing people that we encounter every time that we travel to Mexico, for showing us again the beauty of simple kindness.