Power to Love

I get the opportunity every Friday to volunteer alongside the High School ministry with a governmental housing neighborhood called Golden Acres (GA). I am going to be real honest... it is a dark place. It is the hardest thing I have EVER done emotionally. The very first time I went there was a child, about 8-years old, holding a flyer with a naked girl on it and "touching" her. I got so frazzled, I took it from him ripped it and stuck it in my pocket to throw away later. When I got home and took it out of my pocket to throw away I started to cry. Why would an 8-year old boy even have the ability to see these things? Why are the parents allowing him to experience this? Why, Why, Why... I started to get really angry at these parents, guardians, older guys that are influencing him to be like this. And then God just spoke into my spirit reminding me that those men, where once this boy. They were the boys being encouraged to view and touch girls in this way, they were the boys that were laughed at if they hugged someone, they were the boys that were told "your no good", "you are going to end up like everyone else, you can't get out." They were the boys that were written off by society and they were the boys that the church was too scared to go into their neighborhood and bring Jesus with them.

You see every time we step into the neighborhood we bring the Power of Jesus Christ with us. Today one of my friends shared from Colossians 1:29 with all the volunteers before we left for GA. It says "To this end I also labor, striving according to His (Jesus) working which works in me mightly" and then he was just explaining how although we are a small group going into a big neighborhood, there is a BIG JESUS working through us. It seems so hopeless sometimes, and it seems like we are doing so little, and I know sometimes we feel like it is going all wrong. But here is what I know, every week there are about 10 kids that coming RUNNING to our cars when we get there and another 10-20 that come out to play with us. I know that for the next 2-3 hours those kids get hugs and thrown in the air, and jump rope, and play basketball, and they are loved by everyone there. And with our hearts humbled knowing we are not going to change those kids or that neighborhood we go as we are called and pray that Jesus will SHINE and overtake that neighborhood. We pray for the kids, we invite the teens to church, and we try to engage in conversations with the parents. But we can't do it. The 10-15 of us that go (even if there were a 1,000 of us) don't have the ability to change it, but we have began to see the fruits of our co-labor with Christ. From last I heard 3 of the HS students have accepted Christ in the last few months.

It is sometimes hard watching from the outside, knowing that these kids don't need to head the way they are heading, but it is an opportunity to see Christ. I see the volunteers (HSers and leaders alike) getting frustrated that it's not running smoothly and I think of Jesus and his birth. Probably not what Mary would consider "smooth". I see the kids fighting each other, or whining about not getting a second cookie, or not getting the ball enough, or not getting a piggyback ride. When I step back I see Jesus looking at Christians fighting or whining about God not obeying their will. I see these kids following bad examples, taking the wrong road, and I get frustrated that I can just change their direction. I see Jesus watching me walk away from him. Over and over and over again. And yet whether it is how he came to redeem you and I, watching us fight and whine, or watching us walk away in either ignorance or disobedience with love he looks at His father, our father and says "I died for that. Forgive them for they know not what they have done" And so all I pray is that I can love these kids unconditionally, even when they are kicking me, cursing at me, whining, or talking while we try to do small group and that Jesus will change the hearts of this neighborhood. And because He is sovereign and He loves me I will have faith that with a humbled heart He will work powerfully through me and those I serve with.

Galatians 6:9 "Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."
Colossians 3:14-15"But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called to one body; and be thankful"