A dear, dear friend of mine was forced to become a couch-surfer a few nights ago. His mum and he don't have a happy relationship much of the time, and after a large fight over dinner, he was spending the night at a friends house.
Living on a couch, with no clean clothes, no school books, and no family.
It thankfully lasted just one night. But that is a lot of time.
This boy has just about every "right" to be angry with his momma, well...by the worlds standards anyway. -We never truly have a right to act in an unloving way.- Despite his pain in that evening of eviction, he continued to act in a loving way toward his mum the next day. In a moment of beautiful grace, he let the fact that she was hurting him be forgotten, and offered to her grace and peace.
I praise God for examples like this.
Jesus continually teaches me more and more ways to love people.
I have felt a sense of urgency for the people around me. I think it really came about when I started being confronted with these many young men and women contemplating suicide. My thought has been "what I am doing is not enough." And it isn't. I need to love in bigger, better, more Christ-like ways. I need to love in a way that they might see God's love. So what can I do for You, my Lord?
I've been praying for opportunities to love. To love people I wouldn't always see. And today, that prayer was clearly answered. And I expect even more.
This evening my darling brother Daniel and I were feeling munchy, and decided to stop in at McDonalds. Ew. Why did we do that, you might ask? Neither of us could give you an answer. We both despise the place. And can barely eat anything they serve. I seem to recall the words "well, I just gave 4 dollars to the devil" being uttered as we turned away from the counter.
Oh McDonalds. Well, praise Jesus, he knew what he was doing when he led us there.
As we sat in the corner chatting, and munching away at that food we already knew was going to feel terrible in our stomachs, a little man walked up and began to speak with us.
Let me paint you a picture of this man. He was quite old, and nearly all his top teeth were missing. His cheeks hollow, and his body withering away, and he seemed as if there might be a large infection in his mouth. As he spoke, I could quickly recognize alcohol on his breath, which wasn't hard to detect, as he spoke quite far inside the typical "personal bubble" area.
He was a rather touchy man, and liked to tap my shoulder. I didn't mind.
He sat and told us how apparantley the government is controlling the weather with chemicals. Much of what he said didn't really connect with the next sentence, and he seeked affirmation, constantly asking "can you hear me?" or "ya dig?"
I prayed throughout the conversation, asking our God if He wanted me to speak to give me words, and Daniel was asking the same, but to the both of us His reply was "not now, you need to just sit and listen."
This little old man told us many stories. He told us frequently about his attraction to men, which at time was slightly inappropriate. But also heartbreaking. He spoke of how he is alone, lives alone, and no one wants to help him because he lives this way. Our world should not be like that.
He looked at the rings on Daniels hands, and the cross he bears on his neck, and asked if Daniel was a Christian. With excitment, he told us that he is a Christian too, and continued to give us quite the history lesson on Martin Luther, and oppressed women, and how women apparantley have masculine souls...
Anyhow, we ended up chatting with this man for about an hour and a half, and I quite enjoyed it.
Looking at it now, I wasn't at all embarrassed to be sitting with this man. I wasn't embarrased that he didn't look like everyone else, or that some of the things he said were a little wack, or that other people maybe thought he was weird. Whatever. What does that matter?
When we love others, we love God. That's a spear to the heart for me sometimes. When I'm not loving toward a guy on the street, to my dad, to a rude person I meet...in those moments I'm not loving toward God.
Dang. I certainly don't want to do that.
Jesus bless me with a love that is big, and loud.
I want to love people. I want to love You. Grant these people more time, they need it, desperatley.
Living on a couch, with no clean clothes, no school books, and no family.
It thankfully lasted just one night. But that is a lot of time.
This boy has just about every "right" to be angry with his momma, well...by the worlds standards anyway. -We never truly have a right to act in an unloving way.- Despite his pain in that evening of eviction, he continued to act in a loving way toward his mum the next day. In a moment of beautiful grace, he let the fact that she was hurting him be forgotten, and offered to her grace and peace.
I praise God for examples like this.
Jesus continually teaches me more and more ways to love people.
I have felt a sense of urgency for the people around me. I think it really came about when I started being confronted with these many young men and women contemplating suicide. My thought has been "what I am doing is not enough." And it isn't. I need to love in bigger, better, more Christ-like ways. I need to love in a way that they might see God's love. So what can I do for You, my Lord?
I've been praying for opportunities to love. To love people I wouldn't always see. And today, that prayer was clearly answered. And I expect even more.
This evening my darling brother Daniel and I were feeling munchy, and decided to stop in at McDonalds. Ew. Why did we do that, you might ask? Neither of us could give you an answer. We both despise the place. And can barely eat anything they serve. I seem to recall the words "well, I just gave 4 dollars to the devil" being uttered as we turned away from the counter.
Oh McDonalds. Well, praise Jesus, he knew what he was doing when he led us there.
As we sat in the corner chatting, and munching away at that food we already knew was going to feel terrible in our stomachs, a little man walked up and began to speak with us.
Let me paint you a picture of this man. He was quite old, and nearly all his top teeth were missing. His cheeks hollow, and his body withering away, and he seemed as if there might be a large infection in his mouth. As he spoke, I could quickly recognize alcohol on his breath, which wasn't hard to detect, as he spoke quite far inside the typical "personal bubble" area.
He was a rather touchy man, and liked to tap my shoulder. I didn't mind.
He sat and told us how apparantley the government is controlling the weather with chemicals. Much of what he said didn't really connect with the next sentence, and he seeked affirmation, constantly asking "can you hear me?" or "ya dig?"
I prayed throughout the conversation, asking our God if He wanted me to speak to give me words, and Daniel was asking the same, but to the both of us His reply was "not now, you need to just sit and listen."
This little old man told us many stories. He told us frequently about his attraction to men, which at time was slightly inappropriate. But also heartbreaking. He spoke of how he is alone, lives alone, and no one wants to help him because he lives this way. Our world should not be like that.
He looked at the rings on Daniels hands, and the cross he bears on his neck, and asked if Daniel was a Christian. With excitment, he told us that he is a Christian too, and continued to give us quite the history lesson on Martin Luther, and oppressed women, and how women apparantley have masculine souls...
Anyhow, we ended up chatting with this man for about an hour and a half, and I quite enjoyed it.
Looking at it now, I wasn't at all embarrassed to be sitting with this man. I wasn't embarrased that he didn't look like everyone else, or that some of the things he said were a little wack, or that other people maybe thought he was weird. Whatever. What does that matter?
When we love others, we love God. That's a spear to the heart for me sometimes. When I'm not loving toward a guy on the street, to my dad, to a rude person I meet...in those moments I'm not loving toward God.
Dang. I certainly don't want to do that.
Jesus bless me with a love that is big, and loud.
I want to love people. I want to love You. Grant these people more time, they need it, desperatley.
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