The Essence of Living

When things go bad, good people step up and do something.  I love to hear of examples of this, and there have been plenty recently.  Take the February snow and ice storm, for example.

It began on February 13, 2021, when foul weather hit in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, my own neck of the woods.  But it quickly spread north, south, and east, eventually impacting more than 170 million Americans in various ways and causing blackouts for more than 9.9 million people in the United State and Mexico.  Texas, in the United States, was particularly hard hit and 14 million Texans suffered various forms of misfortune from minor to catastrophic.

The able stepped up.

Jim “Mattress Mack” McInvale, owner of a three-store chain of furniture warehouses in Houston called Gallery Furniture, opened up two of them to anyone who needed a place to stay.  Thousands of people had such a need and hundreds of them streamed in to his two facilities, setting up camp on beds, recliners, sofas, tables, and floors.  McInvale had the in-store restaurants running and even had other meals besides brought in for his guests.

And this is what he said: “We think that the essence of living is giving and it’s not our privilege to do this, it’s not our right to do this, it’s our obligation.  This is what we’re put on the earth to do is help other people and when situations come up, that’s the time for us to spring into action and help people get a better view of the day because some of their lives right now are very, very dark.”  Indeed!

Nina Richardson and Doug Condon are of a similar mind.  On Valentine’s Day, just 24 hours into the epic storm, a young woman named Chelsea Timmons attempted to deliver groceries to their home in Austin.  Her own house was in Houston, three hours away over extremely bad roads.  But that became sort of beside the point.  Chelsea’s brakes locked up on her way down the steep, icy driveway and she slipped and slid right through their flowerbed and took out a small tree before stopping just short of the house, thankfully.  She was mortified and filled with dread.

She was left with no option but to text the family inside the home and tell them of her plight.  Doug came right out.  He tried to free Chelsea’s car from the ice and snow without success.  All three began making phone calls – to AAA and area tow services.  No luck.  No one would/could come.

That was when Nina and Doug invited Chelsea to stay with them until she could safely get out and moving again.  Five days later she was able, finally, to do that. In the meantime, she was tucked up – safe, warm, and well-fed – with a couple who’d been, until then, total strangers to her.

These folks – Jim, Nina, and Doug – did what they could in the circumstances. We all can and should do the same.  Paul and Timothy, in a letter they apparently sent jointly, wrote, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4, NIV).

As “Mattress Mack” said, it’s our obligation to do what we can when we can.  I’d argue, though, that it’s also our privilege.

“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act,” said Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived (Proverbs 3:27, NIV).  And that’s sound advice.

That is, in fact, the essence of living.