Last Sunday I met a young lady who was stuck here in Omaha, living under a bridge on . I believe she told me she was from Cedar Rapids, IA. Apparently she came here with a boyfriend, things didn’t work out and now she’s stranded here. She met a another guy and wanted to go to Lincoln with him. Problem was neither one of them had the funds to get there. She’d done her homework though. The bus tickets for the both of them was, I believe $37. Could we help her get there? I have to tell you, I struggle with these kinds of requests. I always wonder if the person asking is being totally square with me. And I think if I was on the other end, I’d maybe do whatever was necessary to get where I needed to go. Now this girl was clearly new to the area. Or at least new to our area. I’d never seen her before to be sure. But she needed help and word gets out quick that maybe a person could get a little help on that corner on Sunday. So I get all the information I can from her last Sunday. All she has for contact information is an email address. I won’t put her email address here for obvious reasons, but she was raised in an admittedly very pagan environment and part of her email address is wytch and there’s a 666 in it also. Now that is just bizarre to me, but whatever. So I get home and look up the price for a bus ticket to Lincoln and I try to figure out what to do. I mean it’s cheap enough that if a person got temp work for a few days, that person would have enough to get there on her own. Right? So I email her and tell her to call me. She does. On Tuesday. And this time she tells me that the tickets are now $22. Now I don’t know but I’m thinking that I’d find a way to get $22 if I really wanted to go somewhere. But that’s just me. So I ask her a million questions on the phone…"can’t you get a little temp work, can’t a family member send you the money"…all the usual questions a person thinks of I guess. I’ll be real honest. I really didn’t think we should help her. As if I should be the one making that kind of judgment. I mean, who am I to make this kind of decision for her? Sometimes I wonder about myself… So at this point I can tell she is getting a little flustered with me and I still can’t make a stinking decision. Apparently when she called, she was at some type of shelter and she was looking for some dinner. I tell her to get something to eat and call me back. She never does.So Robin and I head out to our Tuesday group with our friends at the Vine. And as "luck" would have it, they are talking about this young lady. Seems she’d been there the week before and was looking for help from them also. So now I’m really not sure what to do. I mean it’s what I’d spend on a couple of large pizzas for my family and for some reason I’m suffering from paralysis by analysis. Good grief. So she shows up again today. And I tell her like usual to hang around and we’d talk after the meal was served and all the clothing was put out and all that stuff. I never want that stuff to get in the way of an important situation, but it’s hard to have any kind of a meaningful conversation while we are trying to get everything set up and served. Soooooo, as we are wrapping things up, someone comes up to me with a couple of bags of stuff to donate. This person has come down today for the first time to help out and she also brought some clothing and stuff to donate. And she also happened to hand me a twenty dollar bill for whatever. So guess what whatever that twenty went to? I guess her generosity answered any questions I may have had. You see the thing is, I seem to have a hard time in the discernment department. I struggle with who to help, when to help, when to try to understand if it’s in our best interests and the other person’s best interest. Sometimes I just don’t know. So after stumbling with this for a week, and while this young lady continued to sleep wherever she could lay her head, God hit’s me upside my rather large melon today and answered the question for me. Like I’ve said before, I could screw up a one man funeral. Thank God He’s there to give me guidance.
I had a long conversation with a friend of ours today. Seems this fellow is angry with God and wanted to talk to someone about it. The details of why he is angry are personal, but some things have happened to him over the course of his life that have made him a bit angry. And he wants to know if Robin and I can help in that department. I don’t know…can we? I mean, I tried to explain to him some things I’ve come to know over the years. But this fellow has had some crazy things happen to him and he wants to know why God lets these things happen. That’s always a tough one for me. I mean there are tons of different answers you could get from different people regarding "why God lets bad things happen to good people". I obviously don’t know where this will go, but one thing he said stuck out to me. He said he’s gone to churches and asked for help. Now I don’t know what churches and I don’t know what help. But he said he was tired of asking for help from people who go to church on Sunday and don’t live the rest of the week like they do on Sunday. He had a few choice words for sure, and there was some pent up anger. But it’s the first time I’ve had a real conversation with him and it was real. He was angry and it was a real emotion. Justified? I have no idea. I guess I’ll find out in the coming weeks.
And today we had another amazing meal. But the amazing thing I see in this is God continually sending people to help. Amazing people. People who bring ice cream and homemade apple crisp for around 200 people. That is amazing. I am simply blown away that someone would go out of their way to bring something like that for our friends. And I saw some folks with bowls that were busting out with the good stuff. Amazing. God does so many amazing things in this ministry and sometimes it’s easy to miss some of them. A young lady needs money to go to Lincoln. Another person just "happens" to show up with the same amount today for a donation? And I’m struggling to make a decision around this thing. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Look, we don’t preach to our friends. Not in so many ways. But for the most part, I’m convinced that they clearly understand why we come. Another gentleman that I’ve come to really enjoy talking with, came up to me and handed me a sheet of paper that contained a devotional. He gave it to me because he said it reminded him of Robin and me. He’s an older fellow from Africa and he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Ever. He just happens to be homeless. Part of that devotional, which was written by John Henry Newman, contained the following – ‘Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears for You". That’s been our deal from day 1. That our actions would speak loudly, but that they would definitely be evident. That our friends would clearly, and without a doubt know, that we are there because God sends us. It really is that simple. We are truly blessed to be there. It’s stressful, it’s tiring and sometimes I wonder how in the world we can keep going. But then I spend a Sunday afternoon down on that corner and I am able to quit wondering for at least a day or so. God truly carries the burden and I can simply be the person he created me to be for now. John Adams said, "The duty is ours, the results are God’s." I’ll go with that.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
Peace and have a great and blessed week.
Make a difference.
…it matters to that one… :)
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