Naked by T. Lynn Caldwell

I saw a naked man during my first trip out of the United States.  I was college-age and sitting alone in a hot tub at a nice spa/hotel in Europe.  The naked man (very handsome) chose to change clothes without closing a door.  Immediately, I closed my eyes out of respect for this gentleman who was obviously not aware of my presence.  I was having many conflicting thoughts.  Frankly, I really wanted to look!  “These are the moments that test our integrity,” I said to myself.  I peeked.  Oops, still naked, and I closed my eyes once again.  “This vacation just went from really good to great!”  I said to myself with a smile on my face and eyes still closed.  I was trying to do the right thing. 

Now beyond the age of 50, if I were in the same little predicament again, I would probably just laugh and applaud.  I have lost some of the sincere earnestness of youth in exchange for an opportunity to make fun of a naked guy.  This is not a good example of maturity’s effect upon me.  In some ways, age has made me unimpressive and careless.  Sometimes this worries me.  At this stage in life I’m not so much afraid of what I might see as what I am seeing and just carelessly missing/misinterpreting altogether. 

It is sad but true that long years, as well as a measure of success and privilege in our lives, block us from really SEEING, and empathizing with, the predicaments of others.  Sometimes in middle age, an armchair quarterback mentality takes hold, and we pronounce judgments on the situations of others using OUR life experiences rather than a serious consideration of THEIR life experiences.  Or, even worse, we see and truly understand the difficulty of someone else and just say to ourselves, “Well, that’s a shame,” and walk away.  We accept the tragedy and brush it aside because, after all, it’s not happening to us, and that’s just life.  Privilege and success allow us to do this.  And, most tragically of all, it also allows us to be the source of another’s difficulty with little, if any, internal or external accountability.   We become unimpressive AND powerful; a bad combination. 

I believe the Florida Hospital Church is on the verge of new and exciting ministries that will serve some very challenged populations in Central Florida.  We may wind up serving the emotionally and psychologically naked of the earth that have experienced the worst of our society.  How will we prepare our church community to minister in new and challenging areas?  Our first step toward successful ministry is to look within ourselves and examine what the years, the successes, and the privileges have made us—both impressive and unimpressive.  Then, choose to be thoughtful, prayerful, and intentional as we serve diverse populations.

T. Lynn Caldwell

Guest blogger and Member of FHC