Hot Dogs

Last week a friend and I took a last minute road trip. We went to a Church Planter’s Conference in Raleigh North Carolina. (more about that later) Anyway before the conference started we stopped for lunch at place called Hot Weiners. Like their name says, they only serve hot dogs. They serve them plain or with your choice of coney sauce, mustard, and onions. It’s an old school “lunch counter” kind of place, so you just come in and sit at the counter wherever there's a seat. Consequently you end up setting next to people you don’t even know, but who eventually become friends.

Remember this is the south, so I decided to talk to the two ladies next to me. One was 80 and the other was 85. I know how old they were because they told me! Anyway, they had just gotten done delivering meals on wheels to shut-ins and were treating themselves to lunch. I asked the "girls" if they eat here often. They said, “all the time.” I also asked them where they were from. They said they were locals and were quite proud of it. Later they left and the owner/waitress came over and said to us, “You made their day.” I think they loved just having someone talk to them, not to mention somebody younger call them "girls".

Later two more people took their place. They were a husband and wife, a bit younger, only 70 something. (I choose all the really “hip” places to eat!) I asked them if they come here very often. They said, “all the time and they would come more often but they aren’t open for supper.

When we left I realized what happened. I had a chance to do carry out the truth of something John Wesley said hundreds of years earlier, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.”

While I was in Raleigh, someone called and wondered if I would do her mom’s funeral. I knew them from the church I was a long time ago. They don’t go there any more. I guess they don’t go anywhere. (I suppose 27 years isn’t enough time to find another church?!) Anyway, pray for me. I’m doing the funeral tomorrow. I think it’s a test, a test to see if I willing to do all the good I can, by all the means I can, in all the ways I can, in all they places I can, at all the times I can, to all the people I can, as long as I can, even when I don’t feel like it!