Re-Evaluating
I went to lunch today with some ladies from Church to help plan the food for a brunch. It is going to be at the church I attend, and a guest speaker/missionary will talk while ladies eat. These questions kept coming into my head: Will the poor in this town want to come to this brunch? Will the meth addicts find help here? What about the pregnant teenager? The single mom who just got out of jail?
I have recently become quite involved at this church...and had gotten caught up in the "doing" when God hit me over the head once again with Isaiah 1 - basically reminding me that I am doing all of these things, but none of them are what He has asked of me. It's the harder things that He has asked of me...like going to the nursing home, visiting that abused woman, letting that girl and her boyfriend into my home even though they smell really bad...talking or praying with the person whom I feel is hopeless...these are the ones Jesus intended the church to reach out to. They are the ones that most people (myself included) want to walk far far away from, forgetting that such as they actually exist.
Isn't it so funny how we sometimes consider ourselves to be the "least of these" until God pulls back the shades and shows you someone who is really in need? I have everything I need...I have a home, a husband, a beautiful child, food on the table every night, all of the extras...and I have love. I have support. I have hope.
The nursing home I visit on Tuesdays had brought some of their residents out for lunch where we were eating(I live in a really small town - not many restaurants). A man I know was being wheeled in to sit at the table right next to me. I said hello to him, and he immediately began to tell me about the blanket he had for Mayah ( my little girl), and he had been so sad that I had not been there on Tuesday because he was really looking forward to giving it to her. Later on, one of the ladies that had been there on the Tuesday I missed told me that he had actually cried...he had wanted to give her that blanket so badly. A man who probably sits alone for most of his days in a wheel chair in a nursing home.
He is one who needs the hands of the church wrapped around his neck in love.
I have recently become quite involved at this church...and had gotten caught up in the "doing" when God hit me over the head once again with Isaiah 1 - basically reminding me that I am doing all of these things, but none of them are what He has asked of me. It's the harder things that He has asked of me...like going to the nursing home, visiting that abused woman, letting that girl and her boyfriend into my home even though they smell really bad...talking or praying with the person whom I feel is hopeless...these are the ones Jesus intended the church to reach out to. They are the ones that most people (myself included) want to walk far far away from, forgetting that such as they actually exist.
Isn't it so funny how we sometimes consider ourselves to be the "least of these" until God pulls back the shades and shows you someone who is really in need? I have everything I need...I have a home, a husband, a beautiful child, food on the table every night, all of the extras...and I have love. I have support. I have hope.
The nursing home I visit on Tuesdays had brought some of their residents out for lunch where we were eating(I live in a really small town - not many restaurants). A man I know was being wheeled in to sit at the table right next to me. I said hello to him, and he immediately began to tell me about the blanket he had for Mayah ( my little girl), and he had been so sad that I had not been there on Tuesday because he was really looking forward to giving it to her. Later on, one of the ladies that had been there on the Tuesday I missed told me that he had actually cried...he had wanted to give her that blanket so badly. A man who probably sits alone for most of his days in a wheel chair in a nursing home.
He is one who needs the hands of the church wrapped around his neck in love.
posted by KariBryant @ 5:18 PM
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