HOMELESS FAMILY IN NEED

I've been running around today trying to help a family with a 3 week old baby. We met them on Sunday for the first time at the motel church. The father is hispanic and I believe he's here legally. The mother is from South Carolina but they're both unemployed right now. Living at the motel (for at least another week) until they figure something out.

What I'm learning is that all the different non-profits and shelters in Orange County are completely useless. Most of them have a waiting list of at least two weeks or more. None of them have empty beds to offer. And all of them have different hoops to jump through. The Christian groups won't help you if you aren't married. (They're not). Some of them require you to be employed and demand some or all of your paycheck, others require you to be unemployed and ask you to quit your job to enter their program. (So they can help you find a job later?) It's madness.

So, after making a few phone calls to people I know and trust, it came down to this: They could either take their 3 week old baby girl into a homeless shelter (Salvation Army) and sleep apart on either end of a segregated facility, or the mom could take her baby and sleep at a women's shelter (because they don't take men) and the father could sleep on a park bench and hope he didn't get arrested for "public camping".

What really breaks my heart is knowing that organizations that I've championed for years cannot do a thing to actually help these people. The truth is, I'm learning, they never were capable of actually helping anyone beyond the 10 or 12 people they were currently helping, even though they were receiving millions of dollars a year from the Government to fight homelessness in Orange County. (Most of their funding finances are spent on paying their staff and keeping the lights on in their facilities).

I think when it really comes down to it the only real solution to helping people like this are you and me. The followers of Jesus have to step up and help. We have to invest our lives in their lives. We have to let them sleep on our couches, or lend them money to buy food, or share our resources with them, or put them up in a motel until they can get help, or they will never get off the streets.

The system is designed to keep people on the streets. The motels they stay at nickel and dime them for every little thing. You can't use the phone in your motel room because the management charges you more than it costs to walk across the street to use the pay phone bolted to the telephone pole.

You can't get a job because you don't have a computer to type out a resume, or the money it takes to pay Kinko's $4 an hour to use their computer and print from their printers. Even if you do have that money, you still need more for the bus pass to get to the Kinko's, and with your 3 week old baby under your arm and no diapers or food for her, not to mention no food for yourself either, it's going to be hard to justify that $7 for a resume at Kinkos when your baby is crying out in hunger.

If you don't have a car and you spend your last $5.00 to take a 3 and a half hour bus ride to get your social security card and find out that they won't see you until you run over to the courthouse to get something signed or stamped (another 30 minute bus ride), then you've wasted an entire day for nothing. This sort of thing happens all the time.

All we can do is help one person, or one family like this, at a time. The system is broken. The shelters are full. The rescue mission is understaffed and their waiting lists are so long that people will die of exposure before they get one of those beds.

Only those who claim to follow Jesus can ever hope to make a difference. How? By giving until it hurts and by serving those who can never pay us back. By sharing what we don't want to give up and by allowing the problems of the homeless and the poor to become our problems.

We'll have to love more than we think we can. We'll have to give more than we're expecting to. We'll have to do even greater things than these.

-kg

Terms of Surrender

"Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" (Matt 19:16)

"Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Matt 19:21)

Someone recently emailed me to ask about what this verse means for believers today. Are we expected to go and sell all of our possessions and give to the poor in order to follow Jesus?

It's a huge challenge to consider these instructions from Jesus and even more challenging to consider applying them to our actual lives.

Here are some things to consider as you meditate on this scripture.

First, notice that the Rich Young Ruler's question to Jesus was "What good thing must I do to get eternal life?" (v.16)

In response to that question Jesus says, "Sell all that you have and give it to the poor and then come and follow me." (v.21)

Throughout the Gospels several people come to Jesus and ask him what they must do to inherit eternal life or to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus never gives the same answer to anyone twice.

Why?

I think it's because Jesus is able to look into the hearts of those who are asking and he can see what is holding them back from submitting themselves to him as their King, and therefore what needs to change in order for them to enter the Kingdom of God.

For Nicodemus, a wise and well-respected Pharisee, the terms of surrender were to become like a baby again and start over from the beginning with a new birth.

For the Rich Young Ruler it was letting go of his wealth.

For Peter it was walking away from the biggest catch of fish he had ever had in his entire life.

For Matthew it was quitting his job as a tax collector on the spot to follow Jesus for the rest of his life.

For Zaccheus it was giving half of his possessions to the poor and paying back four times the money he had extorted from his fellow Jews as a tax collector.

For the Thief on the Cross it was simply recognizing that Jesus was a King who would soon be coming into His Kingdom.

In every case, the terms of surrender were unique to the individual.

So, what is it that's holding you back from following Jesus with your actual life today? If it's your great wealth or your love of money, then maybe that's what Jesus would ask you to surrender to Him. If it's your intellect and your position of respect and authority in the community, maybe it's complete humility and the willingness to become simple and foolish in the eyes of men in order to identify yourself as a follower of Jesus. If it's your job, then maybe you should walk away from it like Peter and Matthew did and follow Him.

For each of us there is probably one thing that we would find difficult to surrender to Jesus in order to enter the Kingdom. We should certainly be willing to let go of whatever the Lord Jesus asks us to surrender in order to follow Him and die to ourselves and carry our cross in obedience to Him. But we shouldn't take it upon ourselves to assume that just because Jesus asked one person to do something that you and I automatically need to do that same thing.

What is Jesus saying to you? What is it that Jesus would ask you to surrender? What, if anything, is keeping you from seeing the Kingdom or following Jesus today? Honestly, that's all that we really need to ask ourselves.

-kg

SILVER AND GOLD

Some of us have to admit that we just don't care about the poor. We'd rather just write a check and be done with it.

I can understand that, and I've been there before in fact. For most of my life as a Christian I was comfortable writing the checks so that someone else could step out and touch the poor and serve the lost. Unfortunately, we are called to do more than write checks.

What frightens many of us most is the suggestion that Jesus might be asking us to invest something more than just a check.

A check is easy. I don't have to touch anyone. I don't have to look them in the eye, or smell their breath, or become entangled with their problems.

A check is still, ultimately, about me. I even get to write it off my taxes at the end of the year.

But sharing what I have, listening to someone's story, touching another person, loving them the way I would love Jesus? That's frightening. That would take a lot of faith. It would involve trusting God like I've never trusted Him before.

And that would be exactly what Jesus was talking about when He asked us to lay down our lives for one another and take up our cross to die daily to ourselves.

It's Not About Money
For the last five years or so we've been serving families at the Studio Inn in Santa Ana, California. During this time of service I've learned that the less program we have the more Jesus we can bring.

Our monthly motel service costs our little house church just over $100. That covers groceries for about 30 families, renting a bounce house and buying a box of popsicles for the kids. But again, it's not about money. In fact, there have been times over the years where we didn't have a bounce house, or treats, or free groceries. We just showed up, my wife and I and our two boys, and a few others, and we played games, ran relay races, made a craft and prayed for our friends. Those were honestly some of the more amazing times we ever had, actually.

Keeping it simple, and learning to love the people who are right in front of you, is all it takes. That doesn't cost anything. It doesn't take a small army of trained workers. It only takes an open heart and a desire to put the needs of others ahead of your own.

Strength in Weakness
One of the principles of the Kingdom is the power of weakness. Paul talks about boasting in our weakness because in our weakness the power of Christ is revealed (2 Cor 12:9). That's a huge lesson. I used to always believe that the power of Christ was revealed in my eloquence, or in my talent or skill or ability. Instead I've discovered that the more I come in weakness, relying on God's strength, the greater the outcome.

Living in Orange County, California I've come in contact with some very wealthy people. Many of them are paralyzed by their wealth. Because of their great supply of cash they are tempted to lean on that money to save their marriages, or to protect themselves from reality, or to insulate themselves from the poor. I wish for many of them that they were not so wealthy. If they didn't have all that money to make things easier for themselves, I wonder, would they lean more on Jesus to rescue them or challenge them or change them?

Freely You Have Received, Freely Give
So, what can you bring if you leave your money belt at home? If you have a wallet full of money to give away you'll be tempted to meet physical needs without paying attention to the spiritual poverty. If your focus is on what you can do, or give, or bring, you might just miss what God wants to do.

Jesus announced his ministry on Earth by reading from Isaiah 61 saying, "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour..."

Even though the annointing that was on Jesus involved the poor, and even though he warned us that we would be judged based on whether or not we had compassion on the poor and the outcast and the forgotten (Matt 25), we cannot miss the fact that Jesus was called to the poor in order to preach the Good News of the Kingdom to them.

We have that same calling.

I've been reminded recently that if we bring the poor free groceries and we put on a big production for them, we can't forget to bring them the Gospel of the Kingdom too.

Your Portion is Small
If you can't bring them money, what can you bring the poor?

"Then Peter said, 'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." - Acts 3:6

Maybe this is what Jesus had in mind when he sent out the twelve to preach the Good News of the Kingdom? Maybe it's why God told Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver my people from the Midianites"? (Judges 7:2) Because when we are strong, we have no need of God's strength. When we come bristling with our own wealth and talent and power and possibility the best we can do is the best we can do.

Perhaps if we left some of our resources at home and simply went out with nothing in our hands but worship, nothing in our hearts but faith, nothing on our lips but the Gospel of the Kingdom, we would see more of the power of God revealed in our weakness.

I'm eager to find out. Aren't you?

-kg

SOLIDARITY WITH THE POOR

As I sat with my friend Tom Crisp this week over lunch, we talked about the radical way in which the early church engaged with the poor. Their perspective was so Kingdom-minded that they fully embraced the idea of being in community with the poor at any cost. Their compassion for the needs of their brothers and sisters that they gladly surrendered their earthly possessions to ensure that everyone in the Body had enough to eat and a place to sleep.

In contrast, I began to see how the Church today – and this includes myself – has focused largely on engaging the poor by attempting to improve their economic status. Rather than give up what we have, our energies have been applied to helping the poor in our society to acquire the skills necessary to become like us and join the middle class of society.

Essentially, the early church sold off their possessions to become one with the poor, and today the modern church holds on to its wealth and looks for ways to eliminate poverty.

I say this less as a critique and more as an observation. I find this intriguing. In fact, I’m surprised that I’ve never heard this idea expressed before. And of course a wide array of questions begin to form and splinter outward from this realization.

Should the church be moving into poverty rather than moving the poor into the middle class?
Can we ever truly eliminate the “us versus them” mentality without becoming poor ourselves?
What does this idea of surrendering my wealth and my status in society have to do with following Jesus?

Certainly, if I wanted to, I could make a pretty strong case from scripture that following Jesus means laying down our lives, the poor are rich in faith towards God, and a whole lot more.

At the same time, I understand that there is a balance to this conversation. Scripturally, Jesus didn’t tell everyone who wanted to be his disciple to sell all that they had and give it to the poor first. However, in that same context, Jesus affirmed that all of the disciples had done just that and would be blessed a hundred fold in this life and in the life to come.

I also understand that, as a father and a husband, the idea of becoming one with the poor in this radical fashion brings more than a little discomfort. How can I reconcile this idea of giving up my possessions and my wealth if it means my children don’t have the food they need, or the education, or a place to sleep at night?

As I consider this new testament perspective on engaging the poor in this way, I am reminded that these same early Christians also developed a policy that said, “he who won’t work won’t eat.” So, I understand that there’s a balance somewhere between absolute poverty and begging for food versus working to provide for your own needs – and the needs of others.

Obviously, I have not fully thought this all out yet. I’ve only just recognized a difference between the posture of the early church towards the poor versus our posture – and my posture – to the poor today.

Like most of what Jesus taught us, putting his words into practice is not easy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Peace,
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