BST's Blog

Last night we had Room in the Inn at Otter Creek as we do every Tuesday night through the cold months. We share with other churches. Each church takes a night. We offer these men a bed, a shower, dinner, breakfast and a sack lunch as well as a gym bag to fill up with things from the Room in the Inn closet. They can take shirts, pants, shoes, coats, etc.

Maddie has always been somewhat apprehensive about men. (As her father, I don't mind that much and hope it continues into TEEN years!) I was wondering how she would be. Sheryl had other plans and so I had them by myself. I tried to prep both of them telling them that these men don't have a place to sleep and need warm clothes and food. I told them that they should treat them just like Jesus would. Be sweet to them, offer to help, etc. Amazingly, they were not freaked out by them and, in fact, enjoyed playing with a couple of them.

The food was not ready early enough and the men were really hungry. Maddie and Ella shared their goldfish crackers. Since the girls are used to eating around 5:30 I finally had to break down and feed them about 6:45. They were really hungry. Ella offered some of her treasured grapes to one of the men. Maddie offered her cheese. They were winning hearts and stomachs.

The girls played hide-and-go-seek with "John". John was sort of a gruff man--one who Maddie would typically not have anything to do with. She laughed with him and played with him. I think it was cool for the guys to be around the girls. Several of them sat and talked about how they reminded them of their own children, now grown. It was a sweet time.

As we left, Maddie went around saying goodbye and even hugged one of the guys. Ella said her goodbyes too and we got in the car. As we drove home I told them how proud I was of them. They reached out--they really did--beyond their norm. I told them that in doing that and in helping those men feel like we love them and see them as normal people, they were loving them like Jesus would.

We got home and they crawled in their beds and we said prayers. Maddie insisted that we pray for John. I was glad.

It's hard, as a parent, to know how to expose your children to things like that in healthy ways. I was overcome with emotion as I watched them crawl into their warm beds in our nice house. These very nice guys have made some choices. Some of them had choices made for them. They aren't that far removed from us. My heart broke for their loneliness and the tear I saw in one man's eye as he told me of his children, now grown, who won't speak to him.

Incarnation. The WORD made flesh. He didn't do this just for us. He did it to show us what incarnation looks like. We are his hands and feet. It's not a Sunday morning service, it's a way of life (or should be). I desperately want to know how to make that more true for me. I long to be his hands and feet more than I am now--and I long to CARE about that more than I do.

We talked some about this in our ZOE planning meeting but if we were to play "Where's Waldo?" but call it "Where's Jesus?" I wonder what we'd find. As we play it in the New Testament, who do we see him spending time with? Where is he? How does he go about his day? What kinds of people is he engaging?

If we were to play it now..."Where's Jesus?" Is he warming a pew on Sunday and forgetting about Kingdom during the week? Is he a deacon in the church and yet forgetting to love his wife? Is he concerned at all for the poor? Does he make an issue out of worship wars but give little thought to his neighbor? Where's Jesus?