The first time I took the initiative to Love the poor on my own without a mission trip or a Christian event was in early March on a Saturday afternoon. It was windy that day so I made my way to the bridge by the highway to see if I could find some shelter from the wind. Sitting alongside of the bridge were two men drinking some liquor and smoking some cigarettes. One of them had grey hair and maybe three teeth and the other wore sunglasses and a baseball cap. I walked up and asked if I could sit beside them to get out of the wind for a bit. They nodded and there was a very awkward silence that proceeded. I introduced myself and they didn’t say anything. After about ten minutes I looked over and asked if they were from here or not. They both replied no. Silence rendered its awkward head once again. I felt God tell me to ask them what their story was. I told God that obviously these guys were trying to give me a hint that they didn’t want to talk to me… I sat there and argued with myself for a bit and finally blurted out, “So, what’s your story?”
“My story?” the man with the grey hair replied. “Why the hell do you want to know my story?”
I stared at him blankly I started to mutter an apology. “Sorry, I just….”
“You’re a Christian aren’t you!?” he shouted. I almost wet myself. I thought he was going to hit me or something…I wasn’t ready to die.
“I can tell.” He said with as he cracked a smile. “I see His Love all over your face.” I sat with them for two hours sharing laughter and good conversation. They talked about their past, and what they do currently. I asked them what their plans for the future were. Without missing a beat one of them said that he was going to stop drinking. I looked over at the three empty liquor bottles leaning up against the brick and he noticed my glance. “It has ruined my life.”
In the New Testament the gospels talk extensively of Jesus’ miracles. When I read that Jesus said that we will do even greater things then he did (john 14:12) I was perplexed. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t raised anyone from the dead recently. I haven’t walked on water in a while either. Shane Claiborne said something in his book, “Irresistible Revolution”, which really stuck out to me:
“I started to see that the miracles were an expression not so much of Jesus mighty power as of his love… The last significance was not the miracles themselves but Jesus’ love. Jesus raised his friend, Lazarus from the dead, and a few years later Lazarus died again. Jesus healed the sick but they eventually caught some other disease. He fed the thousands, and the next day they were hungry again. But we remember his love. It wasn’t that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers. And the incredible thing about that love is that it now lives inside of us." Jesus wasn’t saying that we would do even more impressive magic tricks, he was talking about Love. When Jesus left he gave us the Holy Spirit and the ability to show his God-sized Love to people that need it desperately. I got a call two months later from one of the guys telling me that he got back on his feet, he had quit drinking, and he was starting to live again. He was living at a halfway house and working downtown. Lesson I learned: follow God’s suggestions even if it is “awkward”. He has a world to change and we are the hands.
Sweet ... may God keep you safe as you show his love, and may God forever keep your new friend from the curse of drinking.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! I appriciate the prayers
ReplyDeleteI have been reading through your posts and all I can say is, I am inspired. Excellent way to lead by example.
ReplyDeleteYou are a talented writer, and God is using you in mighty ways as His hands and feet, not only on the streets, but through your blog as well. May God continue to bless you and your family.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much friends! Your support is very much appriciated!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful story, I'm very happy that you had bumped into my blog and I into yours :-) We seem to both come from very misunderstood religious backgrounds and yet we are both striving to live spiritually with our respective religions as our guides. As the famous Islamic mystic Rumi once said in one of his poetry that a seed cannot grow without its kernel but at the same a seed cannot grow fully without its shell; it needs both.
ReplyDeleteI'm also feeling very happy and inspired to see that you sat with these people without your ego getting in your way; when one serves God in the most purest of ways, there is no such thing as "above" or "below" or at least in the materialistic sense of the words.
I think it's amazing too that you also strive to listen to God, who in a lot of religious and spiritual traditions is believed to exist both so intimately within our hearts and yet is also beyond us at the same time. Haha, and I notice that you tend to spell Love with a capital "L" all the time, a close friend of mine does that too and I now know well that this alone is a great indicator of a beautiful soul! :-D
This blog post also reminds me of a beautiful Sufi quotation I had once bumped into. In this story a man was doing one of his daily prayers (we muslims pray 5 times a day) and he saw a cripple, a man that was beaten up, and a blind man. In seeing such a sight, he pleaded to God, "Oh God, if you are so Loving and Merciful why do leave your servants to suffer?" and God responded: "I have created you."
One more thing I forgot to add. Regarding miracles and Signs, I remember how when I was telling my spiritual master about a dream I had and asked him if there may be a meaning behind it. He told me not to be too bothered with searching for the meaning; sometimes the meaning already reveals itself and many times when we try to find meaning in such things, we may end up limiting the dream's potential deeper meanings.
ReplyDeleteThere's in fact are some verses in the Qur'an, which I unfortunately can't remember word for word, that say that we are too bothered with searching for "miracles",etc. when miracles are already all around us in the heavens and the earth and even within us. I won't be surprised if your scriptures also have similar quotes and would love it if you could share if you know any.
Reema B.- Thank you so much for your encouragement and your thoughts. I do capitalize the word Love! That is so cool that you noticed that :)
ReplyDeleteI like the story you shared about the man asking God why there was suffering and how God responded that he created us. In the bible Jesus calls us the "Body of Christ" I really believe that we are the hands and feet of Jesus in the world to defend and help the poor. I like that you have similar convictions towards the poor :) excellent.
"I like that you have similar convictions towards the poor"
ReplyDeleteThough I must say that such convictions still need to be more deeply ingrained into me, I still feel that I have a lot to learn when it comes to the "Art" of helping others.
Looking forward to reading your future posts, in the meantime, please do stop by more often at my **Tea House** (http://teatimereflections.blogspot.com) :-) I really liked your first comment there on one of my posts.