The Poet of Room at the Inn

Our friends, the Pendletons, have served lunch on Good Friday with the Luke 14:12 Soup Kitchen for years. This year, a group of us from church joined them. It is an amazing organization that serves meals in the kitchen of Room at the Inn. They are two of Nashville’s finest charities working together to make life better for people who are having a hard time.

Luke 14:12 is a machine. They wrangle volunteers like a sergeant handles new recruits on their first combat mission. Very quickly we found ourselves in a room filled with men and women eating a hot, delicious meal on nicely set tables. We had time to visit and greet our guests as we served the plates, cleared, and arranged for the next group to come in. Each table had one volunteer assigned to turn the seats as one guest finished and another came to sit down.

I noticed my friend Cindy talking to a gentleman at the next table. He handed her something and she began to laugh and then cry. She hugged him. I went back to seeing to my own table. A few minutes later, Cindy called me over. We were all wearing name tags. This gentleman took each of our names and made it into a poem. He wrote the poem on a napkin and gave it to each us as a gift. I suddenly understood why Cindy was crying.

I can’t stop thinking of that man. I don’t know his life or his circumstances. But whatever happened to bring him to Room at the Inn, it did not quell his generosity of spirit. He blessed each of us with his art. He took the time to love strangers. He looked at us, saw us as individuals and wrote beautiful things about us. His smile at our pleasure in his gifts was radiant.

So many of the guests made a point of speaking with us and asking where we were from. They went out of their way to make us comfortable when we were supposed to be there to bless them. They saw to each other, sharing cake or salad, offering up what they had to someone else. They thanked us for the excellent bar-b-que and made a point of telling Brad Pendleton, the pitmaster, how good it was. For a few minutes, it was just a group of people who came together to share a meal.

The entire experience was joy-filled. While our guests appreciated a good meal, we were heartened by being a part of a ministry that makes a real difference in people’s lives every day. And, I will keep my poem on a napkin as a reminder that our gifts, whatever they are, can bless someone else if we are willing to share them.