My Confession

Holy flippin cow! You know those times when all the stars line up just right, all traffic lights seem to turn green for you, and every friend you've ever had tells you how great you are...yeah, I've never had that last one either :)...anyway, sometimes there are just days or even weeks where all things that are happening in your life seem to be pointing you in a particular direction. Well, starting with Francis Chan's Crazy Love (chapter 9) I've been pretty jacked up. Chan speaks of Christians that are "obsessed with God." One thing a Christian who's obsessed with God, Chan says, is a person who cannot help but to love and minister to the poor. I believe that I love the poor, and would, you know, give them some change or something to eat if I was confronted with the opportunity. That last sentence you just read may give you a hint at how I really treat the poor: "I  believe..." "confronted with the opportunity..."

I can't even say it: I love the poor! Instead I soften the statement with "I believe..." This alone makes it clear to me that my actions don't say, "I love the poor."

Wait, Francis jacked me up a bit (Thanks a lot Chan :) but that same week I was reading through Galatians and lo and behold...Paul is telling the Church in Galatia his testimony about how he became a Christian and began ministering to Gentiles. He gets to the very end of his testimony, where he (Paul) is speaking with James and John (a couple of Jesus disciples who were called by God to minister to the Jews). Basically James and John commission Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and the very last thing Paul recalls is "They only asked us to remember the poor--the very thing I also was eager to do."

You know, I don't think I've ever been told to "remember the poor" and certainly I have never been eager to remember the poor. The poor have always been the community that I tend to steer clear from. "They're awkward," I argue, "I don't know how to relate to them," I'd say. But does that matter? NO!!! So is my heart sooo hard as to not really caring about the poor. It must be. Now don't get me wrong because what I'm about to say may be a little judgmental and upsetting, but I think the Church (yes, the whole Church) in N. America has become hardened to this forsaken, despised, and neglected community. If you disagree, reply to me a time when someone begged you to remember the poor..."They ONLY asked us to remember the poor." Or tell me about a time when you were so passionate about serving/ministering to the poor that you said, "serving the poor is THE VERY THING I was eager to do."

Clearly, something is wrong in the Church today. I know there always will be, but this thing we can change. Having a heart for the poor is a "easy fix"...to an extent. All we really have to do is pray to God that He changes our hearts. This may result in you not spending all your money on the new whatever that just came out. Instead you may be spending more time at the homeless shelters and paying for them to eat or to use the bus. Did you know that if every church in the greater Las Vegas area (to include Henderson, Sumerlin, etc.) were to adopt a homeless person, feed, shelter, and clothe him/her then there wouldn't be any homeless people in Las Vegas.

So I confess it. I don't know how I've done it...be a Christian and not really care about the poor. But it is now clear that God wants that to change. Will you join me? Will you pray for a heart for the poor? Will you look past yourself and consider the cause of the poor with me? I guarantee it's gonna be tough. Our lives won't look near as fancy as they have been, but on the other hand, we don't live for this life. A phrase my pastor coined is that we "live in view of eternity." That's what it's going to take to live this life eager to serve the poor. 'Cause the poor will seldom be able to give back to us. That's why Jesus words are comforting: "Whatever you did for the least of these, you have done for me."