3 questions...Who do you serve, who do you serve with, and why?

Well, the first one should be obvious to most. At least it is for me. Why of course I serve God. The Father Almighty. The Maker of all that is. The Beginning and the End. He is the one reason I do all I do. The sole purpose. Now don't get me wrong. Often times I find myself falling prey to all that the world has to offer. Money, things, stuff, etc. I suppose we all do. However, in the quiet times, when I'm driving to work in the mornings and the streets are quiet, when I walk the stairs here at work, 20 flights, which I try to do a couple or four times a day, I pray. I pray to Him that he would continue to allow me to serve in ways that please Him. Small digression here. The stairs are really cool. The stairwell faces east. So in the morning when I trek up them, the sun is coming up and when I get to the top floor, you can see the sun beaming through the clouds on certain mornings. Very cool. Looking out over the downtown area. And if I look down and to the south a little, I can see the corner where we serve. 14th and Douglas. Our corner. Pretty small from up there. Pretty big on Sundays from down there. It provides a different perspective from above. That corner is like a gateway to the park that sits in the middle of downtown Omaha. The park runs all the way down to the Missouri River, ultimately. Several blocks long. But the corner of 14th and Douglas is somewhat of an entrance point. IF you look down from the top floor of my office building, you can see the worn path that that corner is. That is the place where a lot of the homeless folks congregate on a fairly regular basis. So while most of the park is now a lush green, that particular corner is worn down. Pretty symbolic of some of the folks we serve. Worn down. Tired. What must it be like to live that lifestyle? To be down to the point that your whole world is carried on your back. Literally and figuratively. In a backpack. Maybe trying to figure out where your next meal might be coming from? Most of these guys know the system. They've been at it a while. They know where to get a meal. Where to get some of the basic necessities of life. But lots of times they have to jump through hoops just to get these "things". Stuff. So who are we serving? The least of those? What are the stories that got these people to this point? How do we help them? Not just on Sundays. How do we help them long term? Are we serving them in the way that God would have us serve them? Are we being intentional about why we do what we do? Are we serving them and Him in a way that is pleasing to Him? I'd like to think the answer is a big, resounding yes! I hope it is. We try to make sure that it is. We venture down every Sunday with that intention. The hope that our Father is the true guide of our mission.

Question number two...Who do you serve with? Well this is the good one for me. I am honored to serve with my best friend, my closest confidant, my compadre, the love of my life. I am so blessed. Beyond belief. How in the world I was ever blessed with such a beautiful and compassionate wife, I'll never know. Well, someday I'll know. How was I blessed with her? What did He see in me that said I have someone so special for you? I can just see Him stepping back and saying to Himself..."Dave, you have no idea how good this is going to be". For those of you who don't know, Robin and I met in a bar here in Omaha. I say June of 1990. She says May. You know who is right and who is wrong. She was a cocktail waitress. I was playin' in the band. They were good times. Troubled times, but good times. You know the old character building times. It was a time for both of us to remember. We were both on our way out of that scene, even though we didn't know it at the time. I was mere months away from being told to make a decision regarding the rest of my life and how I would choose to live it out. She was about to go along for the ride. I've mentioned in a previous blog about my lifestyle choices. Drinking...drugs...etc. Well, when I met Robin, I was winding that lifestyle down. God, apparently, was preparing me for the next phase. How ridiculous does that sound? I'm in the middle of Satan's world, and yet God still has a use for me. Grace. In over my head...totally immersed...drowning in Grace and I don't even know it. So God puts Robin in my path. Thank you God! I'll never forget telling my Mom that Robin and I were getting married. Mom, I'm sure, often thinks I'm nuts. Well, this time, I'm sure she was thinking I'd totally lost it. I won't even tell you how I proposed to Robin. I could barely take care of myself, and here I am talking about getting married. What a goober. But God had a plan for me. For us. I don't have any idea how this all works. How is it that some of us are "restored"? How is it that some of us can be "rehabbed"? It is simply and purely by the grace of God himself. That much I know. But how does it work? Why can't all my friends in our church be restored? Rehabbed? Right now. Yesterday, I spent a little time in the "office". I mentioned the office before. The central area of the park. Lots of shenanigans happen in the office. Yesterday, one of the guys that we met our first week in the office, Jay, was back. Jay spent a few months in jail. Shoplifting. Like, third offense. So Jay was back yesterday. Several guys hanging out in the office. Passing a brewski around. We had a weather situation yesterday. You see it's severe weather season here on the plains. Lots of spring thunderstorms and such. Yesterday, the weather was supposed to be severe. Tornado watches and thunderstorms and that sort of thing. So as we are getting ready to go downtown, I tell Robin that I think we should just bring the bare essentials. Food only. No clothing bins or extra stuff. Let's get in and get out before the weather gets us. So Robin tells me she prays for good weather between 11:00 and 1:00. So at 9:00 when the skies are just opening up on me as I leave "the" Wal-Mart, I'm thinking we are in for a rough day. But you know what? It slowly starts to let up. Then, by the time we get downtown, and I'm not exaggerating, the skies turned blue all around us. You could see storm clouds everywhere around us except for directly above us where the skies were nothing but blue. It was amazing. The woman I serve with prayed for that and here we were. Now, does God hear these kinds of prayers and bless us in these situations? Well, duh! He did! And here's further proof, as if we need it. Heather is a young lady that shows up on occasion. Yesterday was the first time I've actually met her I think. I was doing my normal schmoozing and I came upon her. Shorts, a t-shirt, no shoes. So Robin, in all her compassion, and because I was such a non-believer and didn't bring any of our usual provisions (shoes, clothing, etc.), promised Heather that we'd run over and get her a pair of shoes. We could run over to Wal-Mart and grab a pair and meet her back at the park. Heather is trying to get her life turned around. The state has taken her baby. She and her husband have been trying to determine if it is not in the baby's best interest to just let that be the case. Apparently they are going back and forth trying to make that decision. Hard to provide for a baby when you are having difficulty providing for yourself. So anyway, Robin tells her we'll take care of her. God will provide. So we wrap up our activities on the corner, take our remaining Panera bread "doughnation" to the shelter for their kitchen to use and then we head over to "the" Wal-Mart. Grab her a pair of sneakers and some socks. Now, while we are driving to "the" Wal-Mart, the skies are opening up on us again. This is just after 1:00. 11:00 to 1:00. Blue skies. Just after 1:00? Torrential downpour. And I mean biblical rain baby. Answered prayers. So we get the shoes, head back to the park, and the rain stops again. I mean STOPS! I head down under a bridge, because that was our designated meeting point. About 15 or 20 of our friends had gathered for refuge from the rains. The guys from the office. Heather and her husband. Robert in his wheelchair. A bunch of 'em. So I give her the sneakers and head back to the van. She is very grateful. I am very grateful. The rains had pretty much ended for the day. And have I mentioned how amazing my wife is? How completely and totally undeserving I am to be working for God along side this amazing person in my life? Well, God absolutely blessed us when he placed us together. So that's who I serve with. Robin Laney. Amazing creation of God. And the love of my life.

3rd question...why? Well, this is the most obvious of all for me. Because He said to. It's that simple. He said to go and do. Serve His people. Especially the least of those. Those that need it the most. Sometimes...I need it most. I constantly wonder how I am in the position I'm in. Why me? Because He rescued me from oblivion? He saved me from a life of aimlessness? From the evil grip? Because He is the reason for all we do. He is the reason that we go. It is so obvious. I am so sure. We had the news piece a couple of weeks ago. From that, we have more people stepping up than we know what to do with. And that's a good thing. We've been very intentional about letting people know what He has us doing. We have to share it. People have to help. It is so important that people know. That the opportunity is presented in a manner that is pleasing to Him. I had a guy yesterday ask me how Jesus could be the Son of God and yet still be God? Deep. Questions like that happen to us almost every week. At least to me. I can't really speak to the other folks that come down every week, because I'm not sure what the conversations center around. It can be a whirlwind. Things happen pretty fast. I can only speak to the things that happen to me. From my perspective. But when I can have conversations like that with a fellow named Joseph on a corner in downtown Omaha, that is why I serve. That is why...

Gotta run. Have to meet a fellow named David on the corner of 12th and Capitol at 11:00. All his clothing was stolen. Needs a couple of pair of pants, a couple of shirts, and a few other clothing items. Goodwill is our friend here. David needs to know that God's provisions are coming. He needs to see that we care. Because we do. Because we serve a God that cares. He cares deeply. And I know that when I serve Him, with Robin and all of our other faithful servants, for the simple reason that He says to, then He will be pleased. Because whatever we do for the least of them...

Peace and have a great and blessed week.

..."it matters to that one"... :)