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| Written by Milan |
| Friday, 18 July 2008 11:32 |
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It was a cold winter morning and I was heading to school. I drove that day because I wanted to stop and give Jesse the long underwear I had promised him. Jesse is a homeless man who has one leg, and I had been building a relationship with him for more than a year. As I pulled up next to him on the exit ramp, he recognized me. He hobbled forward on his crutches to receive my gift, but as he did so, his crutch got caught and he completely tumbled over nearly under my vehicle. I couldn't believe what happened, and I got out of my car in the middle of traffic to help my friend up. To my utter shock, as I helped him up, he angrily told me to "Go away, leave me alone." He had tears in his eyes from the pain of the fall. I drove away filled with extreme hurt and anger, yelling obscenities into the silence of my vehicle. A mile down the road I pulled into a gravel lot and beat my steering wheel to vent my anguish. Then I started to reflect...and I realized that everything in me wanted me to cut ties with Jesse, he had embarrassed and rejected me while I was holding my hand out to help. My nature told me to leave this man alone. He was homeless, of no value, and definitely wouldn't be any loss to me if I never talked to him again. But faith called me to something different. Deep inside the Spirit was saying "No, you are wrong. You have to go back." We all have to step out in faith into the unknown and into the mess of a broken relationship. You see, reconciliation isn't a walk in the park...it is a dirty, obscene, uphill crawl through the mud. On that day, my faith won out, I immediately drove back and parked my car so I could walk out and talk to him. What followed was a brotherly blow-up that you would see in a healthy home where emotions and feelings are freely expressed. We yelled, we cried, and we went our ways. But that day a light bulb went on inside. I realized that by serving others and reaching out my faith actually increases. Too often I try to build my faith by remaining comfortable and accomplishing that which remains within my control. On that day I realized that faith grows when we follow the prompting of the Spirit to reach out and not take the easy road when it comes to avoiding the people in this world who we assume have no value and no personal impact on US. That day was a major breakthrough in my relationship with Jesse. He had to see that I wasn't just another person who would give up on the relationship as soon as things got REAL. Matthew 7:14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. |
| Last Updated on Friday, 19 September 2008 12:41 |