What Really Matters

I stopped at a restaurant in Eudora, Arkansas for Lunch and to meet with the residents whom I perceived, were descendants of former slaves. I sat close enough to listen in on the conversations of daily life. What fascinated me most was the fact that they knew every customer that walked into that restaurant by name.

What really matters

 

That sense of community and of family was very impressive. As I was finishing my lunch, a gentleman noticed that I had been sitting in the back and welcomed me to join in on the conversations. After about 3 minutes of introducing myself and saying how much I loved the community that I had encountered there, The gentleman asked me “You are a college kid right?” I said yes, I had attended college. And then he asked, “You are not from around here right?” Again, I said yes, that I was from Lagos, Nigeria. He looked very pleased with himself to have been able to decipher these 2 facts about me in 3 minutes. After a few more minutes, I  bade a fond farewell and got back on the highway to my next destination.

As I drove back, past those vast fields, to New Orleans, Louisiana; I could not help but think about the scriptures found in Acts 4:13:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Here, I had just had a short conversation with residents of Arkansas and what was perceived of me was that I was a college kid and that I was from another country. Not that, like the disciples, I had been with Jesus. My work, I know, is cut out for me. What then really matters? That I have the highest education and have traveled the cities of the world or simply or that I have been with Jesus?