Sit a Spell with Miss Doris

“Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.”  Proverbs 12:15 

 After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, many of us traveled south to help rebuild homes.  On my first visit I learned to use a crowbar and hammer to remove plaster.  The work was hard and dirty in sweltering heat.  Plaster stuck everywhere.  It was exhausting, but it felt very rewarding to do this type of work that I had never done before. After a long day, we would return to the church where we were staying, eat dinner and collapse on our air mattresses hoping they would stay inflated.

On my second trip I met an inspiring woman, Miss Doris.  She was short, weathered and a couple decades older than me.  She lived in the house across the street from our host church and had been a member there all her life.  She said hello to me as I was walking past her home and invited me to “sit a spell” on her front step with her.  It was a hard decision to make to just sit with her, because there was so much work to be done – so much plaster to remove, so many bags of trash to haul to the curb, so many new pieces of drywall to nail in place.  She was relentless in her inviting, so I sat down grumbling to myself all the while and telling her I only had a moment for her.

She smiled at me and that moment lasted for hours.  I never got to the home I was working on with the others and was teased for being lazy and not doing my share.  However, it was one of the most valuable moments of my life.

Miss Doris told me what it was like to live through Katrina, to live in New Orleans all her life, to have her son killed in front of her home, to run the neighborhood store that took up the front part of her home, and to see God at work in people’s lives.  I listened to many stories that day. 

This woman had a hard life yet had a twinkle in her eyes, smile upon her lips and the good word of God to share with all.  She impressed upon me the need for people to listen to people’s stories.  Our true education came from the words and lessons learned by others according to Miss Doris.  She never made it past 5th grade but was wiser than most people I have met.  I would have been a fool to think my way was right, to go off and work, and to miss this moment listening to her.

It’s important to stop all the busyness and take time to listen to others.  May God enable us to do this important work.

 Dear listening God, Help us to stop and just “sit a spell” so we may hear and learn from other people’s stories. Amen.