As He Sees

The City of Brotherly Love, Home of Ben Franklin, and the where the Legend of Rocky was born…My mom and I were able to escape from our normal lives of work and school in Kansas to a few days in Philadelphia.

Neither of us have ever been to Philadelphia and honestly weren’t sure what to expect. I was looking forward to some quality time in coffee shops catching up on studying and reading, while mom had a few meetings. But during my first afternoon in Starbucks I had no idea how a single lady would come to mark our entire trip.

This woman’s name and age remain unknown to me. I’ll never know her story or how she ended up on the bench along Market St. Yet her need that morning was so evident.

She sits there every single day hoping that someone can provide her with food or spare a cup of coffee. The window into this woman’s life was an experience that I’ll probably never forget. Each stranger that stopped to offer her something was extending a form of love that she rarely saw. Every bite of food she got was reciprocated with a huge smile and gracious ‘thank you.’

As my heart broke for this woman and tears came, I wondered what I honestly had to offer her. Had this woman ever heard the Gospel? Had anyone ever taken the time to even share with her the name of Jesus? Did she know that a man, who died for her 2000 years ago, knows her pain? 

Throughout the week we were in the city, Mom had to continuously remind me to be safe. To an extent that we weren’t in Kansas anymore…haha. I wanted to stop and talk to the homeless, give them food, and simply hear their story and find out how I could help. I began to really question “why I would rather spend my time with these people than in the safety of our hotel?”

Studying through the beatitudes this week answered my question.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,                                    for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.               Blessed are those who mourn,                                for they will be comforted.                                 Blessed are the meek,                                             for the earth will belong to them.”                     God is Love God is Love, God is Love ~Matthew 5:3-5

How does one come to fully possess these characteristics?

The Beatitudes are a profile of the very spirit of Christ. I use to look at them as proverbs/guidelines on how I should live my life. Through reading them and hearing sermons I never actively made a commitment to pursue them. But the single purpose of my life is to glorify God and to do this by becoming more Christ-like. Matthew 5 clearly lays out the kind of person that we should strive to become.

God’s blessing comes to those who least deserve it, to those in the most pain, and most importantly to those who realize they have a need. I wanted to spend my time with these people because it’s what Christ would have done.

He sees their need and wants to fulfill it. 

God blesses ALL peoples. He blesses the man begging for food, the man in the trench coat standing in the doorway, the person talking to himself on the corner, the mother with her young children, the man with the scrawled sign asking for help, our taxi driver asking advice for his son’s homework, and even the woman outside of Starbucks.

Even if just for the afternoon my spirit got to see these people as Jesus would. Every time I met their eyes, they were eyes of God’s children desperately wanting to know who can help them.

Walking down the street,         I got to see as He sees.

 

Jumpers Before Us

  On the playground there was always the ‘cool’ thing to do. In first grade jump rope, 2nd grade the swings, 3rd grade kick  ball, 4th grade, four-square, and in 6th grade football. If you weren’t apart of these games you simply weren’t apart of the group, unfortunately people got picked on and talked down to if they didn’t play these ‘cool’ games.

Thinking back, I wish I would have always been the person who didn’t just conform to playing the games of everyone else. Sure I did it a time or two, but being the oddball wasn’t really what I wanted to be known for back then.

Yet now, that’s exactly who I want to be.

I want to be the person who goes against the grain, who stands up for their beliefs even when their unpopular, I don’t want to be swept into the tide of taking the easy way out. I want to JUMP the FENCE.

Some of the greatest jumpers that we can look to for an  example are characters in the Bible. Queen Esther, when she  used her position in society to avert annihilation from her people. Moses, who was scared of speaking before a crowd of people. Abraham, when he was asked to kill his son Isaac. Mary, when granted the privilege to bear God’s only Son.

Also, Paul’s writings, throughout the New Testament, exude the risk in jumping that he was willing to take on for His Lord.

I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me. But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me. ~2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Paul illustrates in his 2 Corinthians writings that God’s grace is more than enough for any trial that we face. No matter what your fence may be, how long you’ve been staring at it-waiting to muster up the courage to jump, or how many times you’ve jumped before and failed, God’s promise is clear. The Lord’s power is made perfect, without flaw, in our weaknesses.

If these people’s examples aren’t enough to be convinced of jumping the fence. Seek out someone around you who has made this decision and JUMPED!

It is WORTH it!

Anyone who has decided to leave behind the normal game of life and decided to be the person who jumps the fence, who plays their own game at recess, and the person who is chasing the cross, will share that it was the most important decision of their life.

 

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. ~2 Corinthians 4:17-18