A Heart for the Homeless

I’m writing on Monday, from Austin, Texas. I’m here for our annual SGC Executive Committee retreat. It’s a joy of mine to serve our denomination this way. Our elders have been very supportive in letting me slip away once a year for this retreat. The ExComm serves our Leadership Team by giving guidance. The Leadership Team runs the day-to-day operations in SGC, and the ExComm serves them. Last year, I became ExComm chair and ran my first retreat. This is the first year I’ve worked with Mark Prater, our Executive Director, to set the agenda. Thanks for your prayers.

Once we’re done on Thursday evening, I will head up to Dallas to visit my family for the weekend and will be home Tuesday, August 25th. It’ll be great getting to connect with everyone.

Father Damien:

I failed to post this after my sermon on the leper. This short video is about a Catholic priest named Father Damien, who spent his life serving lepers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7PuqdymSdo. It’s one of the most compelling examples of someone serving ‘outcasts.’

Some principles to govern our hearts:

As I stated in my previous post, the bigger issue of serving people is our hearts. We need to be open, willing, and eager to serve, as the Lord directs. The heart of Jesus for the leper, paralytic, and children shows us that He was ALWAYS seeing people.

I believe that once we get our hearts angled in the right direction, the Lord gives us wisdom on what to do next.

Let me give you an example of this:

Recently, one of our young men was leaving the Fred Meyer gas station, and he noticed a homeless man. He noticed that this man’s sign wasn’t the usual “Anything can help” or “Will you spare some money?” His sign was different. So he decided to go over and chat with him. They talked for about 30 minutes.

When I heard about this, I called this man to ask two questions: 1) Why did you do that? and 2) What did you learn? His answers are encouraging and challenging.

He said he did it because he has a heart for people like this, but he’s been burned quite a bit. A while back, he decided to stop helping because of that. But the homeless man’s sign was unique, and it caught him by surprise, so he decided to go talk with him. Side note: notice that he was paying attention to what the signs said. He recognized the difference and was on the lookout to help. So, he decided the best thing he could do was get to know this man and ask the Lord how he could help. This young man’s desire was born from what he saw in the gospels about Jesus’ life, and he has been asking God to help him serve others like that.

He said he learned that this man was able-bodied and worked whenever he needed money. He was homeless by choice and enjoyed traveling alone and seeing different parts of the country. He was a ‘religious’ man, and our guy shared the gospel with him. His biggest takeaway was that the guy wasn’t on the street to take advantage of people, and that he needed community, even though he liked being alone.

This young man said that it’s important to engage folks wisely. For instance, he wouldn’t recommend a lady approaching a homeless man the way he did. He also believed people should be sensitive to when the Holy Spirit seems to be directing.

Now, I love this. He didn’t go to give money. Wasn’t motivated by guilt and was very observant of the person and sensitive to the Spirit. Let’s pray that God will give all of us hearts like this and that we would be sensitive to His Spirit’s work. And let’s pray that God will take the gospel that was shared with this man and bring him to Christ.

Suffering or Salvation:

When Luis preached on August 9th about the paralytic, he asked a penetrating question that stood out to me. He asked, when we’re suffering, are we more focused on our salvation or on our suffering? Oh my, what a challenging thought.

As I’ve thought about this, I realize that when things are ‘bad,’ I find myself praying more to get out of it than to thank God for the salvation He gave me. And as I’ve sought to apply this, it’s been very interesting that my attention turns away from my ‘suffering’ more quickly when I’m more focused on my salvation than my suffering.

This is probably why the apostle Paul could endure such horrific suffering and never think it was all that devastating.

This week, when trials come your way (which they will), take a moment to thank God for saving you. Thank Him for loving you, forgiving you, and sending Jesus for you. And notice how distant or less your suffering feels. It certainly keeps it from dominating our thinking or controlling our emotions.

Looking ahead:

This Sunday, we will study John 21:15-19, as Jesus restores Peter. The point of this story is to see how Jesus treats those who tragically sin. We’ll notice his posture, but also Peter’s (which matters to how Jesus treated him).

Cheap Seats: