Often times I get the question from people who know what we do on Sundays. It’s a familiar question by now and one I never know quite how to answer. How are things going on Sundays? Or how are things going on the corner? And I just find myself hesitating so often in my answer because of a couple of obvious things. Number one, things are going great on that corner. For me. But I get to come back home to my nice comfortable house. My home. I have a home. Lots of our friends have no home. Obviously. So from my perspective, if I was simply looking at how things were going on any given Sunday? I’d say things are going great. I mean, God continues to supply all the things we need in so many ways it’s almost comical at times. For instance, we get bread, pastries and sandwiches from Panera Bread every Saturday night. Whatever they have left over at the end of the day, we get. To serve at our Sunday gathering in the park. This morning, I believe for the first time in over two years, we got no sliced bread. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but ever since we started going downtown on Sundays, we’ve been blessed to serve great pastries and cookies from Panera for dessert and great, fresh sliced bread with our meal. It is simply sinful to see how much we get at times. And where would it go if we didn’t get it? So last night? No sliced bread. This morning I headed over to Wal-Mart to get sliced bread to serve with our meal. So guess what happens when we are setting up to serve? The youth group from St. Vincent Depaul is there this week. The third Sunday of every month they show up en masse! And this week? Guess what they brought? Enough sliced bread, cakes, and other pastries to feed a small army. That’s how God works. He takes care of the details. I know it was only bread. But how much more symbolic does it have to be? I mean it was bread! And that kind of thing happens all the time. Little details. But those little details can often turn into much bigger things. And once again, I digress.
So back to the question. How are things on the corner? Again, for me? Great. I get to see God working and doing all sorts of cool things. Sending different churches of all denominations to help. And here are Robin and I. We don’t even belong to a church, so to speak. At least not in the traditional sense. And yet God continues to absolutely blow the doors off of this thing. I got another message from a fellow this week about his church and their desire to help. And yet another young fellow has been coming down to help and his small group wants to come and help. And on the first Sunday of the month, another church cooks the entire meal and brings all kinds of other things. And there is a core group of people that cook almost every week, or come down to serve in various capacities or just hang out. So from that perspective, things are going great. Us Christians have a place to go and serve God, and in doing so, we get to meet, serve and love our friends. And don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of our friends down there who get it. They will probably be holding the pearly gates for me, providing I make it that far. But there are those of our friends who are simply living on borrowed time. There is no question in my mind about that. I mean, to a large degree, we all are. But some of these guys seem hell bent on making it happen much faster than it needs to happen. Robin was talking to someone today and mentioned that he was resting in God’s grace. He’s continually thinking that God was taking care of things for him, even though he was just barred from the umpteenth shelter for life. How ironic is that? A homeless guy banned from a homeless shelter? Are you kidding me? Resting in God’s grace…
So how are things going on Sunday? It’s a confusing question for me. I want to show up some day and see an empty corner. I want to spend all of my days just serving God, and in the process, serving the people who maybe need it the most. Unfortunately a little thing called my job gets in the way. Today, I counted probably at least 10 or 15 people that might be able to get a little farther on this crazy journey if maybe someone would take a full time interest in them and love them in a way that maybe no one has probably ever done. That’s just 10 or 15 people that I can think if off the top of my head. And then sometimes I wonder how we ever got involved in this thing in the first place. Why us? I mean neither Robin nor myself have any kind of real "training" or whatever in this sort of thing. Why us? God? Is it only supposed to be a thing we do for a couple of hours on a Sunday? Or is it supposed to be more? I mean there’s more to it for us than a couple of hours on Sunday. Various things through the week, but there needs to be more. And maybe we’re doing all we’re supposed to be doing. Showing up each week, meeting some of the different physical needs, attempting to go a little deeper in various relationships, stuff like that. Maybe that’s it? I mean I go back to the question of why us? Because even though I say often that we are no different than a lot of our friends, some of the issues at hand are extremely difficult. The alcoholism, the substance abuse, whatever. And I just wonder when God is going to show us a miracle? And then I guess he’s shown us some already. Maybe we just haven’t been paying attention? There’s a couple or miracles though in particular that I’m praying for. Someone told me recently that God hears all our prayers and answers each one of them. Sometimes, however, the answer is just a plain old "no". I so pray that is not the answer in both of these cases. I’ll continue to pray unceasingly in both cases.
So how are Sundays? Guess it depends on who you ask?
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
…it matters to that one… :)
So back to the question. How are things on the corner? Again, for me? Great. I get to see God working and doing all sorts of cool things. Sending different churches of all denominations to help. And here are Robin and I. We don’t even belong to a church, so to speak. At least not in the traditional sense. And yet God continues to absolutely blow the doors off of this thing. I got another message from a fellow this week about his church and their desire to help. And yet another young fellow has been coming down to help and his small group wants to come and help. And on the first Sunday of the month, another church cooks the entire meal and brings all kinds of other things. And there is a core group of people that cook almost every week, or come down to serve in various capacities or just hang out. So from that perspective, things are going great. Us Christians have a place to go and serve God, and in doing so, we get to meet, serve and love our friends. And don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of our friends down there who get it. They will probably be holding the pearly gates for me, providing I make it that far. But there are those of our friends who are simply living on borrowed time. There is no question in my mind about that. I mean, to a large degree, we all are. But some of these guys seem hell bent on making it happen much faster than it needs to happen. Robin was talking to someone today and mentioned that he was resting in God’s grace. He’s continually thinking that God was taking care of things for him, even though he was just barred from the umpteenth shelter for life. How ironic is that? A homeless guy banned from a homeless shelter? Are you kidding me? Resting in God’s grace…
So how are things going on Sunday? It’s a confusing question for me. I want to show up some day and see an empty corner. I want to spend all of my days just serving God, and in the process, serving the people who maybe need it the most. Unfortunately a little thing called my job gets in the way. Today, I counted probably at least 10 or 15 people that might be able to get a little farther on this crazy journey if maybe someone would take a full time interest in them and love them in a way that maybe no one has probably ever done. That’s just 10 or 15 people that I can think if off the top of my head. And then sometimes I wonder how we ever got involved in this thing in the first place. Why us? I mean neither Robin nor myself have any kind of real "training" or whatever in this sort of thing. Why us? God? Is it only supposed to be a thing we do for a couple of hours on a Sunday? Or is it supposed to be more? I mean there’s more to it for us than a couple of hours on Sunday. Various things through the week, but there needs to be more. And maybe we’re doing all we’re supposed to be doing. Showing up each week, meeting some of the different physical needs, attempting to go a little deeper in various relationships, stuff like that. Maybe that’s it? I mean I go back to the question of why us? Because even though I say often that we are no different than a lot of our friends, some of the issues at hand are extremely difficult. The alcoholism, the substance abuse, whatever. And I just wonder when God is going to show us a miracle? And then I guess he’s shown us some already. Maybe we just haven’t been paying attention? There’s a couple or miracles though in particular that I’m praying for. Someone told me recently that God hears all our prayers and answers each one of them. Sometimes, however, the answer is just a plain old "no". I so pray that is not the answer in both of these cases. I’ll continue to pray unceasingly in both cases.
So how are Sundays? Guess it depends on who you ask?
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
…it matters to that one… :)
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