Good Day~

Today is Friday, which means I went to Long Beach to lead my homeless friends in prayer, in the basement of an inner city church. This week, I took a small folder with the notes of ‘Got an Idol?’ so that my friends would have Scripture in their hands, and something to take with them.  The discussion itself was interesting because while most of us struggle with putting something else in God’s place, that something looks a little different when you are a homeless person, looking for your next meal, a hot shower, and hope against hope, a place to live and work again.  In most cases, the idols that were named were things that offer some sort of solace—though fake and temporary—like booze, drugs and even harmful relationships. 

We are all getting a little more comfortable with each other—I know that because folks who have been there week after week, never uttering a word, are now participating in prayer, and also discussions of ‘why faith’?  Take the Duke of Earl, for instance.  (That is the name he gave me when I asked; a lot of the folks have street names, and don’t reveal their real names.)  He is a tall, very dark black-skinned man, who has looked at me through cold eyes for a number of weeks now.  I had been unable to interpret what he had been thinking about, and I must admit he scared me a little bit. 

Toward the end of our time together, I asked ‘what does God want from us?’  He gave me an almost imperceptible nod that he wanted to weigh in on the question, and said, ‘It’s simple.  Holy—he wants us to be holy.  I mean, God said, ‘Be holy, ‘cause I am holy.’  I continued our discussion, and closed our time in prayer, but all the while, I was also thinking, ‘Lord, this guy knows your Word!  He is another one of my street friends who has knowledge and respect for your Word, but has totally lost control of his life….what does it all mean?’  Every week, I am humbled by my experience with these people—with their respect of me, their knowledge and respect of God’s Word—with their honesty, and for so many of them, their desperate cry for HOPE.

When I finished, I made for the door, (Sun Ye comes in right after, and fixes sandwiches for the 100+ who have gathered), but someone grabbed my hand.  Guess who?  The Duke of Earl.  ‘Will you be back next week?’  ‘Yeah, I’ll be here . . . actually, I can hardly wait for Friday to roll around so I can come back up here … ‘you?  Will you be here, Earl?’  ‘Yeah, I think so.’

A young man was waiting to have a word with me . . . he said, ‘Uh, I just wanted to thank you for praying for me.  You prayed that I could get a job…..guess what?  My old employer called me; I’m going back to work tomorrow.  Thank you.’  Now, isn’t that just like God?  Isn’t he good?  My buddy, Casey, apparently had more to say . . . ‘I guess I had lost hope, and thought maybe I wasn’t going to get another chance—that I’d be stuck on the streets.  Since you prayed that day, I’ve had hope again.’ 

Friends, that’s what Faith Can Do . . . Faith can move us to God.  Faith, and just a little bit of it, can change our lives, and make them new.

Faith to pray . . . faith to love . . . faith to hope again.

“What Faith Can Do” - song by Kutless; Youtube video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=kQp75TsnpSA&feature=related

Give God a chance, won't you?  Reach out to him in faith, and watch what he can do!

Christine