The cursor is blinking on and off at me as I stare at a
blank page. I’ve put writing this post
off for too long now, despite the fact that I felt the Lord leading me to share
this story a while back. So for that I
repent. My procrastination has put me in the middle of this Chik-Fila uproar and
has me thinking much about my beliefs and the Kingdom of God. I honestly caught myself thinking on Wednesday,
What would Jesus Do or better known as WWJD.
I know the “blogosphere” has erupted over this issue, everyone trying to
voice their opinion, and honestly I have read some good blogs. I, however, do
not feel the need to enter into the debate because honestly it feels like a
bloody game of red-rover, an us versus them mentality, and Jesus would probably
bend over and begin writing in the sand right about now. So let’s put the attention on Him. He
deserves it and He can handle it.
My intentions are to write this to an audience who would
call themselves believers. So if that’s you, please keep reading if that’s not
you then you are more than welcome to read as well. If you’ve rallied behind your belief system
with fellow believers due to recent events, I encourage you to continue to support
what you believe in on a more consistent basis. Stand up for what you believe, yes and amen,
that is Love God and Love People. Before
you get angry and feel like I am attacking, let me explain how I believe we
could make a greater impact in our community and city while sending a more
positive message on what it means to be a Christian than just eating chicken. I’m not saying I am God’s answer to Dallas. I
am surely not perfect and have much to improve on and I am convicted that I don’t
have more stories to tell like the one I am about to share. At first I was hesitant to share because I
didn’t want it to be about me, so May God be given the Glory.
We see them everywhere. While waiting at a red light.
Getting gas. Coming out of the grocery store. Or walking downtown. They’ve been
given the identity “homeless” based off of their present reality which is a
direct attack against their God given value as created in His image. We try to avoid making eye contact because we
don’t want to feel ashamed for saying no or pretending like we can’t help. We justify our decision by thinking “they’ll
probably just use the money I give them to pay for alcohol or drugs and so I
don’t want to enable their behavior.” I’ve thought that, you probably have as
well and as reasonable as that sounds, we aren’t responsible for their actions,
we are only called to give.
37 Then
the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and
feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did
we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick
or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to
you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
So it is my privilege and honor to introduce
you to Justin and Allyson and how our paths crossed several months ago. It was a typical drive home from work. I would frequently check Google maps from
time to time looking for any hint of red, hoping to not get stuck in traffic so
that I could hurry home, change and make it to spin class in time. I exit Webb Chapel off of 635 and try to
accelerate in order to make it through the light before it turned red. It turned red and I got caught waiting. Out of my driver’s side window I notice a
woman who couldn’t be older than I was. Wavy
red hair pulled back in a pony tail, glasses, staring expressionless and
holding a sign that said “lost everything.” I quickly look in my coin stash and pull out
what I had and manually rolled down my window in order to engage her in a
conversation before the light turned green.
I ask her what happened and she says that she had lost everything in a
fire. I give her the money and say I’m
sorry that it isn’t much but she smiles and says thank you anything helps. At that time the light turns green and in
order to prevent everyone from getting angry behind me, I had to say goodbye
and drive away.
However, I didn’t leave feeling like I made a difference. In that short exchange of words, somehow I
had seen this young woman not as homeless but through the eyes of Jesus. I was thinking to myself that I wish I could
do more and then I hear that soft loving voice, you can do more. Then the other voice, you gave her what you
had, you’re almost home now and if you turn around you’ll be late and miss your
spin class. So I get home, change into
my workout clothes all the while feeling uneasy and trying to distract myself
from the calling to do more…but I couldn’t.
Not this time.
I got back in my car and parked across the street from her
in the Cinemark 17 parking lot and called her over to me. She shyly walks across the intersection and
meets my eyes. She recognizes me, smiles
and then says hello. I tell her I want
to do more for her, and asked to buy her dinner and place her in a hotel room
for the night. She steps back, puts her
hands to her face and starts crying, “Are you serious?” Yes. “Oh my goodness,
that means I would get to take a shower.
It’s been so long since I’ve been able to take a shower!” She then tells
me she is married and asks if it would be ok for her husband to come too. I say of course and she goes and gets him
from under the overpass. I meet Justin
and escort them to my car. I ask them what
they want to eat and they pick Whataburger across the street. When we pull up
at the drive-through window and I ask what they want, Allyson gets the biggest
smile on her face and says “Can we get anything we want?” As if I took a kid to
a candy store for the first time. I
order their food for them and as we wait in line, I just begin asking them
about their life. A series of
unfortunate events happened, involving car wrecks, Justin injuring his back and
being unable to work and then the kicker: The fire: that had left them homeless
since August with no family to help them out.
I listened to their story and entered their world. Had that happened to me, I would have had
friends and family members to take me in.
They weren’t fortunate to have this blessing so what do you do? Well, you begin panhandling and “begging” for
money so that you can eat. They told me awful
stories of how people would treat them and harass them. How cops would be called on them and they
would be issued tickets. How they can’t find a job because they don’t have
clean clothes or a way of looking presentable enough to hire. How life would be so unbearable at days where
it took all that was within her to wake up and stop crying. But she was still able to say “we have our
days but at least we have each other” and see the positive things in life. Wow.
I take them to a hotel and pay for their room. Afterwards, I walk up to their room and help
Allyson carry her bag. Allyson
immediately turns the heater on blast.
At this time, I silently pray, Lord let them see you. I begin to share why I stopped, why I came
back and try to put into words the best I can that Jesus loves them. Boldness overcomes me and I have a deep
desire to leave them with more than just a “fish” but want to enable them to
get a job as well. So I look at Justin
and ask him if I can pray for his back.
He says sure and so I place my hand on his back and pray. I ask him how it feels. He moves around and
says a little better but pain and discomfort are still there. I say ok again. I pray again and when I ask him this time how
he feels his eyes get really big, he looks at his wife and says “oh my gosh, it’s
gone!” He starts twisting back and forth. I ask if he was able to do that
before and he says no and then bends over to touch his toes! Ha. He keeps
saying over and over oh my gosh babe it’s better I can’t believe this and to
him it was more than just a physical relief but went so much deeper. I could see the way he looked at his wife and
for the first time I saw hope in his eyes that maybe now I can provide for you. You can’t imagine the weight and burden he
must be carrying to look at his wife everyday and know that he was incapable of
providing a safe place for her to live.
And now he has hope.
I let them eat so
that I could go buy them clothes to wear in order to job search the next
day. After an hour or so of shopping I
return with the goodies, hoping I got the right sizes. Justin was out walking, looking for a laundry
mat, thankful that he could walk pain free.
Allyson was enjoying tv, thankful that God was near. I pray for her and leave them with some extra
cash and a bible. She hugs me and says thank you so much and I leave with a
heart full of joy and love amazed at God’s goodness, thankful that he used a
hesitant person like me. So if you see
Justin or Allyson out, please send them my greetings.
If you’re still reading, first of all thank you. Second, I can imagine something is tugging at
your heart as well and you’re wondering what you can do to help and make a
difference in someone’s life. There are
many things you can do but my first recommendation would be to develop a
lifestyle that knows and walks with Jesus.
Get use to His presence and his leading, being sensitive to his voice. This story would have been totally different
had I continued to ignore that small voice and went to workout instead. We can muster up the ability to serve people
on our own for a season, but it’s much more powerful and effective if we do it
out of love for Him and his people.
Next, start taking steps of faith and allow God to dream bigger things
within you and then start sharing your stories with others. I shared this with the lady cutting my hair
and the next time she cut my hair she was telling me how it affected her and
how she was looking for ways to help others and my story encouraged her to do
so. There is enough negative news
broadcasted, I think it’s time we balance that with positive stories of how
Jesus really treated people.
