Equality

This past Wednesday, a friend and I were able to join in a citywide effort to survey homeless people. Not surprising, it was on possibly the coldest day of the week. Our project was to cover the crossroads looking for people without a home, willing to answer a few questions. The difficulty was finding anyone…after driving around, we decided to park and walk. This experience certainly reminded me of my days delivering papers in Minnesota.

After walking several blocks, we checked into a shelter (not literally-though it was much warmer) and after getting some ideas from the guys in there, we stepped outside, and about a block away, we saw the first person we thought might be homeless. He was an African-American man wearing a black snowmobile suit, warm red boots, a hat and gloves and carrying a backpack.

He was friendly, helpful and articulate and said his name was “Gutter.” I asked him if he was busy (stab in the dark-though it wouldn’t have surprised me if he was) and he said, “Not really.” I asked him if he would come with us and help get these surveys filled out. He said, “Sure.”

He decided to take us around the path downtown that most homeless people use as they move from their place of shelter to free meal opportunities. He said he had been on the streets for 5 years and was close to getting a housing voucher. It took him several years to learn the way of the streets and the basic survival skills necessary to make it that long.

He shared a few stories of friends who had died on the streets and some of his own difficulties. For instance, he had built a nice 10 foot by 7 or 8 foot shelter, and some of the hardcore guys with shelters nearby didn’t want him joining the community, so they burned it down. That didn’t deter him, so he moved a little further away and rebuilt. He pulled out his cell phone and showed me a picture of the outside and the inside. It was impressive-it had a window, couch and small table.

Every so often we would come by a homeless person on the path, and he would say the same thing every time, “Money….did you fill out the survey yet?” Some already had filled it out, some were busy (late for a bus or something else) and some filled it out.

Each person who filled out a survey had a story. The oldest who went by the name “Crow” was 68 and had the respect of almost everyone on the streets. It seemed like he was sort of the patriarch. One woman in her late 20’s was reading a book, seemed very bright, but was admittedly hooked on drugs. She had slept outside the night before even though the temperature got down to 0. One guy in his mid-fifties could have easily been misplaced for one of the hundreds of professionals walking around.

For two hours Gutter picked the homeless out of the crowds. Sometimes at bus stops there were 10 or more people, and I certainly would have never asked someone if they were homeless, but Gutter was able to ask for the survey, and I never saw him mistake non-homeless for a homeless.

By now, it was getting close to lunch time and we were pretty cold and wind-burned, so we thought we would call it quits. Gutter was heading over for lunch and we were headed to our car. I gave Gutter my cell phone number, invited him to church and we left.

In retrospect, there was much to take away from our adventure.
• Dignity is important: We did everything possible to accept Gutter and all other homeless people as equals.
• When given the opportunity, most people are anxious to help: How else do you explain a complete stranger giving up 2 hours of his day?
• We are often too quick to judge someone by only what we can see: Every person is a creation of God with a purpose from God.

This Sunday, we are planning to continue a mini-series on faith. Specifically we will look at the life of Moses. In addition, Mike Fox, who helped to start the Kansas City based company, Inergy and then retired to start C3 Missions will be sharing his testimony. This will be an awesome service…you will not want to miss it!

Pain, Growth and Side Effects

Paiton is teething!

This may seem like a simple statement; however there is much more than meets the eye. The subject of teething provides a great opportunity for me to discuss some of the deeper concepts of life: the bottom line we can all learn from a baby is:

When our teeth hurt, if we cry loud enough and long enough someone will eventually come to help us.

We may not make many friends, but we will get some help.

Teething means we are all in pain. Paiton is experiencing pain as a result of her teeth popping through her gums (not gooms). We are experiencing pain because she is the model that did not come with a mute button. You are now experiencing pain, because you are reading this and certainly can imagine the sound of an infant screaming her lungs out with no logical way to calm her down.

I am pretty sure that from her perspective, the pain is more than weakness leaving the body. For Paiton, pain is more than a gentle reminder that something that needs to be changed…which leads me to generalize a little on the topic of pain:

• Pain has a way of cutting through all the niceties and getting right to the point (when we are in pain we don’t stop to analyze if we are in pain…..we know we are in pain).
• Pain is hard to describe (try it sometime) but very easy to recognize.
• Pain is good (though it often gets a bad reputation, try living without it).

Teething means there is good news around the corner. More than just some big chompers and a smile she can be proud of…..teething means that soon she will be able to eat more, which means she will continue to grow more, which means she will sleep longer and we will sleep longer…which leads me to generalize on the topic of growth:

• Growth represents both pain and satisfaction (it is impossible to find satisfaction apart from growth).
• Growth develops a desire for more growth (I doubt she will be happy just to get teeth…I’m thinking she will want to walk some time as well).
• Growth gives us an ability to tolerate more pain (though I am sure I would not enjoy popping any more teeth, I am pretty confident I wouldn’t scream my head off).

Teething has side affects (or is it effects?…to be honest, it is effects and the reason I know that is because I have spell check).The side effects for Paiton are a fever and lots of drool. The side effects for us are more opportunities to hold her and less sleep. Why does accomplishment have side effects?

• The positive effect of growth is of more value than the combined pain of side effects.
• Understanding the side effects for growth makes the pain more tolerable.
• Accepting side effects as a part of life allows us to keep our focus.

See I told you this would be painful!

In a nutshell, if you have pain in your life that is good. It may very well indicate growth and that growth will be worth the side effects you have to endure.

This Sunday the service will focus on the value of putting forth the effort (though sometimes painful or at least inconvenient) to faithfully read and understand all that Scriptures were meant to communicate. My last nutshell: everything you invest into your spiritual growth is worth it!

A Question from an Atheist

Time!

Something we have each thought about this week. Time is elusive, mysterious and thought provoking.

Earlier this evening, I received an e-mail with a link to a video testimony of Penn Jillette of the Penn and Teller show. He is an avowed atheist, but in this video, Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible, he discusses an interaction he has with a Christian man after a show who offered him a Bible. A little later, he makes the point that he respected the man for proselytizing. He even went so far as to say that he would not have respected him if he did not proselytize.

The part that really hit me was his off the wall question, “How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”

As we enter a new year, I think it is important for each of us to answer the question from an atheist, “How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”

In addition, we might as well evaluate how often we found opportunities to share our faith this past year and from a heart of prayer ask God to give us more opportunities this coming year.

It seems that some of my greatest spiritual challenges come from the most unlikely sources. Now wouldn’t it be just like God to use an atheist to challenge each of us to be more consistent in sharing our faith?

This Sunday, I will be sharing from the final verses of 1 Peter 5:12-14. After spending 16 weeks in this challenging epistle, it is my prayer that we have been challenged by our calling to suffer now in order to experience glory later. It is only fitting that the end of the book contains a personal word of greeting that clearly communicates the experience of the grace of God. As you look ahead to 2009 I hope you will stand strong as a result of that grace.

I hope this next year is marked by personal spiritual growth and wise use of time!