Clothed in Dignity

A woman came to the doors of my office today naked. Well, not totally naked (thank goodness), but I was surprised as I was leaving work for the day to find a woman with no pants, socks, or shoes standing at the door shivering in the shadow of the building and the cool fall air. As I was gathering items to give to the woman at the door, I had to chuckle to myself at the sometimes blatant ways that God pushes his way into my life. It brought to mind the verse in Mathew where Jesus said, “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Despite the fact that I work with the hungry, the sick, the lonely, the poor, the oppressed, I often seem to lose perspective on my purpose. I begin to forget what it’s all about; I often ask myself, “Am I really doing anything that matters?”

I brought her some clothes and left for the day, but it did cause me to question myself. How can I give a naked woman clothes and then hop in my car and drive away unchanged? How in this day and age can some members in our society make million and billion dollar salaries each year and others end up at the doors of The Mustard Seed with no pants on? How can this happen and how can I continue to live this privileged lifestyle that perpetuates the systems that make this phenomenon possible? Even as I write this I am sitting drinking a latte at a chain coffee shop whose CEO probably makes more in a year than I will in a lifetime. Perhaps it was just the shock seeing a half-naked person on the steps that shook me out of my complacency for the day, something you don’t see too often, but this woman reminded me in a very real way why we are called the Mustard Seed and why, even though I can’t change the world in all the ways I want to, I choose to work for an organization that is able to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. At The Mustard Seed we hope that even the little things make a big difference. Human dignity is important and we hope that even something as small as a pair of pants, a hot meal, or a smile can make a big difference towards restoring some of that dignity that has been stripped away.

- Paula, The Mustard Seed Edmonton