Christmas Devotion - Day 5

I’ll never forget my first experience with true homelessness.  It was January 1988.  I was almost 20 years old – a college student at Dallas Baptist University.  While I was short on experience, I was long on passion for serving the Lord.  Thus, when I got a call one day from a friend inviting me to join him at the Union Gospel Mission in Dallas (when they were still downtown), I eagerly agreed.  I had been in downtown Dallas enough to know there were literally thousands of people living on the streets, but I never had stopped to even speak to them much less seek to help.  This night would be different and a vast education.  For the first time in my life, I was face-to-face with homelessness.  I began to realize what Jesus meant in Matthew 25:40 – And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’  As I reflected on the cold weather that night, I thought about what it must be like – day after day, night after night – to struggle with the elements, with personal safety, with hygiene, with food, with medical care.  So many issues that I had always taken for granted were a part of the struggle to simply make it through the day.  Over the next two years, I went back time and again occasionally as the preacher of the night.  Each and every time I went, I saw people who Christ died for struggling.  Clearly, a part of the ministry God had given me was to help people who were broken, hurting and lonely.  Not long after that, I took a role as Youth Minister at Kessler Park Baptist Church in Oak Cliff.  As a part of our ministry, we went downtown a lot.  Additionally, I started going downtown regularly to serve with the Union Gospel Mission as well as other partners like Mr. Don Hart of Big Heart Ministry.  I remember standing at Dallas City Hall when Don was baptizing some homeless new believers in the City Hall Fountain!  I began to understand homelessness in a whole new way.  

Years later, as a pastor, I was invited to hear about the work of City Impact in San Francisco.  I visited their site and knew immediately my church needed to be involved.  We helped plant a church in another part of the city but our primary work was to serve with and love the people who came to City Impact.  While the geography was vastly different, the ministry to the people there felt much like it had when I was a college student.  

Put these things together and you can see why I was excited when John-Mark Echols came to talk about The Field’s Edge.  I’ve seen the devastation – physically, emotionally and spiritually – homelessness can cause.  Surely, we can serve our brothers and sisters better, especially in a town blessed with so much.  The Field’s Edge’s mission is one that honors Christ and honors people.  What would it be like if we, as a community, committed to helping the broken, the disadvantaged, the weak, those who need someone to care about them and give them the dignity and honor of a simple place to live. 

While it might be easier to walk past, for those who are called by Christ, what I found is being is greater than doing.  Being Christ’s disciple means I must follow His path even if it takes me to serve people who have difficult problems.