I have to be honest, I had a different plan for this post. I had wanted to share about common sense and how I so often see it missing in our world – both far away and closer to home. But, I heard a story this morning that has since robbed me of that post. My very good friend, Patty Groot, was sharing how she received a call last night from a person in our city that needed some assistance. Patty is the director of Servant Ministries at Christ Church and she receives all the calls or requests for assistance that come in (and there are many).
The call came at the end of a very long day, a very long week, and as she took the call she knew it was going to be a difficult situation. The gentleman who called was pretty frantic. It took no time at all to realize that he was in deep need of assistance. The man was being evicted last evening on the eve of a winter storm warning and if that wasn’t enough, he had two young children with him. Patty, who always seems to know exactly what to do and who to call, was stuck. She knew very well that many of the places that could take him in wouldn’t take children. She also knew that it meant he would most likely have to make some very difficult choices.
Like I said, Patty always seems to know what to do, so she made some calls and found a place that would not only welcome him but also his children. The solution was/is only short term but the reality is that it was a place of hope on a very dark night.
I don’t tell you this story to praise my friend Patty, or to bemoan the struggles that so many people are experiencing each and every day. A ton could be said about the need for some real reform and new ideas for folks facing such devastating moments. We could talk about debt both individual and national, but that would miss the point. Sure, there’s always better planning that could occur but sometimes situations like this are more about, what some might call, “dumb luck” than anything else. What seems to me is that there is a bigger issue at work.
Every night this week, I’ve had the opportunity to hear my Senior Pastor, Dr. George Strunk, talk about the “things that haunt him.” I’ve listened to his teaching and his worry about the slow destruction of our souls that comes from the comfortable religion that so many of us have adopted. I have to say that I share similar concerns. When I think about these haunts, and I think about the man that Patty encountered last evening, I’m faced by the realization that though many very good things occur in the name of the Church each and every day, there is still so much hurting and loss surrounding us. A pessimist, which I am certainly not, might even ask if we’re even making a difference?
The question at hand though isn’t whether God’s Kingdom will endure and prosper, but whether the church is in step with the Kingdom that is so desperately wanting to burst onto the scene? St. Teresa of Avila is so famously quoted as saying:
“Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.”
The reality of both Patty’s story and what George is sharing in his haunt, is that we, the Church, have the means, the opportunity and the ability to change the situation we are in. Now, let me be perfectly clear, I’m not proposing some social movement. I’m suggesting that we take up the Jesus movement. I firmly believe that Jesus’ ministry was to the lost and the hurting and broken. I also firmly believe that his ascension was a statement that said “I’ve done what was needed, I’ve shown you the way. Here’s the Keys, go drive the kingdom yourselves. You know what to do.”
Please do not hear this as a “go and sell your house” or “let’s turn our dwellings into communes” kind of suggestion. What I am saying is that God has purposed the Kingdom to be directly connected to you and I answering this question “How will I be living proof of God’s amazing love today?” Whether you claim the christian faith or not, You are one of God’s precious children and this God wants something amazing for your life. He wants to give you purpose and he wants to use us together to make a dent in His hurting and broken creation.
So, at some point this weekend, take a minute and ask yourself a question. How have you felt/experienced the living proof of God’s love in your life? And when you have an answer, ask yourself a second question – “how can you be the Living Proof of God’s love today?” Some may not be able to answer the first question and that means some of us know exactly how we can answer the second. There’s a hurting world surrounding us and it’s our opportunity to do something about it. We have the ability to take the Keys that Jesus gave the Church and initiate a Kingdom movement one person at a time!
Happy dreaming and may God grant us His grace and peace!