After a fun day serving in East New York, our team was walking back to the subway to begin our trek home to Brooklyn. All week there have been interactions with folks on the street that everybody in our group has at one time or another. Sometimes its one of the guys from LMFAO panhandling in the Subway and other times it is friendly folks curious why 27 white folks from the midwest have come to the city. My favorite question by one Manhattan worker turned teacher today was "Did they come here to see what real poverty looks like?"
But as we approached the entrance to the Subway and prepared for 45 minutes underground with our thoughts, the now familiar screech of metal on metal and whoever God crossed our path with, I was stopped by a lady. "What are you guys, some company or organization?" I explained who we were and she shared how good what we were doing was. She happened to be living in the shelter we had served today. A place filled with 40 beds that are always filled by women escaping violent and abusive situations. "I've got some things I need to get right in my life," she said, "but after that I'm gonna do mission service with my life too. That's what God has in store for me." And at that point I thought this had been a cool interaction. "I have an artificial eye." she continued. "I lost it a domestic violence situation but I'm getting better."
I don't believe in any of that teleportation stuff that they do in Star Trek. But I do think there are moments where we are transported to another time and place as stories connect. In that moment it happened to me. Suddenly I wasn't in New York anymore but in a special little town in Cambodia. And it wasn't a woman I'd never met before who was before me but a little girl. And she was blind in both eyes from a different type of physical violence. And once again I wasn't angry as much as I was broken.
There's a lot of places my mind runs at this very moment. I've had a little time to think about this, I've been confronted with a though and scripture from my friend Joel that whacked me in the soul while he was leading a debrief of his students. So why do I share this here? I think because I need help to process and sometimes writing helps me.
Here's what I know: my little boy will respect all women all the time. He will treat them with dignity and he will protect them like he would his own sister. I know why i love my little girl so much and why I care who she meets, where she goes and who she will date some day. I don't own a shotgun, truth is I probably couldn't load one but I am tall, bald and ugly and that has its advantages as well.
But more than all that I'm reminded of why kingdom work matters. Everything we do, no matter who we are has the opportunity to redeem. To reconcile. To reconnect. It has the opportunity to provide hope. And healing. Whether it is preaching a sermon, pulling weeds, giving a kind glance or giving a few dollars to show people that they are worth something. Its why I love my friends here in New York who are giving their lives to help people connect with Jesus. Its why I love these 20 8th grade kids who are using their spring break to learn and serve and grow. And its why I'm praying that they all bring hope to the world in whatever way God's gifted them to do so. Even that one who won't shut up when we turn the lights out to go to sleep at night.
And its why I'm praying one of them falls in love with the particular city and comes back here to live and serve.
And its why I'm praying for my friend I met on the sidewalk to be restored so she can claim beauty out of ashes.
And its why I'm praying for my sister in the faith in Cambodia that she will continue to be transformed into the beautiful flower God has designed her to be in the midst of the dry and dusty soil she was planted in.
But as we approached the entrance to the Subway and prepared for 45 minutes underground with our thoughts, the now familiar screech of metal on metal and whoever God crossed our path with, I was stopped by a lady. "What are you guys, some company or organization?" I explained who we were and she shared how good what we were doing was. She happened to be living in the shelter we had served today. A place filled with 40 beds that are always filled by women escaping violent and abusive situations. "I've got some things I need to get right in my life," she said, "but after that I'm gonna do mission service with my life too. That's what God has in store for me." And at that point I thought this had been a cool interaction. "I have an artificial eye." she continued. "I lost it a domestic violence situation but I'm getting better."
I don't believe in any of that teleportation stuff that they do in Star Trek. But I do think there are moments where we are transported to another time and place as stories connect. In that moment it happened to me. Suddenly I wasn't in New York anymore but in a special little town in Cambodia. And it wasn't a woman I'd never met before who was before me but a little girl. And she was blind in both eyes from a different type of physical violence. And once again I wasn't angry as much as I was broken.
There's a lot of places my mind runs at this very moment. I've had a little time to think about this, I've been confronted with a though and scripture from my friend Joel that whacked me in the soul while he was leading a debrief of his students. So why do I share this here? I think because I need help to process and sometimes writing helps me.
Here's what I know: my little boy will respect all women all the time. He will treat them with dignity and he will protect them like he would his own sister. I know why i love my little girl so much and why I care who she meets, where she goes and who she will date some day. I don't own a shotgun, truth is I probably couldn't load one but I am tall, bald and ugly and that has its advantages as well.
But more than all that I'm reminded of why kingdom work matters. Everything we do, no matter who we are has the opportunity to redeem. To reconcile. To reconnect. It has the opportunity to provide hope. And healing. Whether it is preaching a sermon, pulling weeds, giving a kind glance or giving a few dollars to show people that they are worth something. Its why I love my friends here in New York who are giving their lives to help people connect with Jesus. Its why I love these 20 8th grade kids who are using their spring break to learn and serve and grow. And its why I'm praying that they all bring hope to the world in whatever way God's gifted them to do so. Even that one who won't shut up when we turn the lights out to go to sleep at night.
And its why I'm praying one of them falls in love with the particular city and comes back here to live and serve.
And its why I'm praying for my friend I met on the sidewalk to be restored so she can claim beauty out of ashes.
And its why I'm praying for my sister in the faith in Cambodia that she will continue to be transformed into the beautiful flower God has designed her to be in the midst of the dry and dusty soil she was planted in.
