Monday Night.

I have been debating for days whether I was going to write about this or not, and come Thursday I have decided that it's just too good NOT to share!

This post is by no means meant to guilt trip any of you or build myself up (hence the hesitation with writing), but instead, I am hoping it leaves some of you inspired and encouraged to make a difference in someones life in the simplest of ways.

So every other Monday I gather with some of my dearest friends for some intentional time - we typically share a meal together while sharing life and talking about scripture, a book we are all reading, and our own faith journeys.  Our time together is always such a blessing.

This summer we decided to change things up a bit and refrain from reading anything and just simply spend time together doing fun and random things.  So this past Monday was Sarah's turn to decide the event of the evening.  Somehow in the midst of all the emails, I missed what exactly we would be doing.
 
So I show up at Sarah's early...and we are just chit chatting.  She's talking about what we are going to do for dinner - the details of the rest of the night are still unknown.  And then Meg shows up carrying muffins...and I thought well those look delicious, and asked her what they were for!  And she declared that they were for the homeless people.  Well Meg obviously got a memo that I didn't.  Turns out Sarah's big surprise was that we were going to go to the grocery store, buy some goodies and then pass them out to the homeless people that we saw on the street.

If I am honest, my first thought was .."gosh I love this girl (Sarah) and her huge heart so very much!!"  I mean truly WHO thinks of that??  Well I guess alot of us would THINK of it, but who actually DOES it in their spare time right?? 

And then I realized that I was also slightly apprehensive.  I mean I have never done this before.  I have volunteered with Union Gospel Mission, but they are known for aiding the homeless.  And it is a little different when you are going out affiliated with a known organization than if you are going out simply on your own...right?  But despite the apprehension, I was excited!

So off we went to the store - and we bought fruit, chips, granola bars, donuts, pop, candy bars, and some other things that I am sure I am forgetting!  And we put them all into two bags.  We discussed our strategy and unanimously decided that our destination would be the University District, and we figured we would travel by car, and then when we spotted someone with a sign, we would park, get out of the car, offer food, and start up conversation.

And that is exactly what we did.  The first guy, Mark, was right outside Whole Foods, and oh man he was so excited.  He simply couldn't stop smiling!  And his eyes sparkled.  We didn't get to talk to him as long as we would have liked considering we had parked kind of illegally, but we did ask him how we could pray for him...and he simply replied, "just pray!"...and so that is exactly what we did.

Most people were extremely responsive to our food and our enthusiasm, and most were even willing to answer our endless stream of questions.  What's your name?  Where are you from originally?  What brought you to Seattle?  Do you have family around here?  How can we pray for you?...Hearing their stories - that was my favorite part.  They were so willing to talk and extremely eager to be heard.  So we did just that - we asked questions and we listened to their answers, and we ended our time together by laying hands on a body part and praying to God for protection and hope.

The final guy we met, Jason, was outside University Congregational United church of Christ (wow that's a mouthful!), which just happened to be RIGHT across the street from my old sorority.  And before we approached him, I turned to Sarah, who is also a sorority sister, and just said.. "he's right outside our old back door...how come we didn't do anything like this years ago??" 

Jason was young people...probably my age or younger even?  We sat down beside him and he shared so much of his story with us.  And I was blessed beyond measure.  He said he had bounced around the foster care system and that he didn't believe in God, but when we prayed for him he reached out his hands to us in a way no one else had.  We squeezed his hands tight and continued in prayer - hoping that he could feel the presence of the Lord.

Our hearts hurt as we drove away from Jason, while shouting our final goodbyes out the window.  And we ended the evening feeling sad...sad for their situations, sad for their pain, sad we couldn't do even more.  But we were filled with so much hope and reminded that this is simply a glimpse of what it means to truly follow Christ.  It isn't always easy, and sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it's uncomfortable, but it's so necessary. Christ has called us to help the least of these...and they are right in front of us, so why do we so often look the other way? 

The entire evening simply served to remind me that homelessness could happen to any of us.  One thing leads to another and before you know it you are out on the street without any money in your pockets, standing on the side of the road, with a sign in your hand, simply begging for someone to notice you.

So where do we go from here?  Maybe we start carrying food in our cars so that we are prepared for moments such as these?   And maybe then, when we have something to give, we will acknowledge the person behind the sign and realize that we are blessed abundantly when we can bless another.