I am double-blogging this week so my posts will probably follow a theme.  Here, however, I will expand the brief thought I am placing on openapologies. 

What do you think of drive-up, clothing drop-offs, at the salvation army?  I used to think it was a great idea, or at least not a bad idea.  But my mind has changed.

Have you noticed how we continually seek for ways to make helping more convenient?  Is that good?  What happened to the humanity in giving?

In all our attempts to create an easier, more effective way to give, a more palatable enviroment to leave the things we don't want for someone else, we've removed the relationship.  Why?  Because I don't want to meet the guy who's going to be wearing the shorts I wouldn't be caught dead wearing.  Because I don't want the responsibility of knowing him, knowing he has 4 kids and no food, knowing he may live on the street or he may live in a house I will never drive by unless I'm lost. 

Their is great disparity in my life and the life of the One I'm told to immitate.

  "It's okay to have relationships with others as long as they are clean and don't get messy--as long as my freshly pressed Khaki's don't get soiled or wrinkled…" 

- from Open Apology to the World at Large