My thoughts…well they change
every day. But over the past few days I have been praying and meditating on
story I read in a book called IRRESTIBLE REVOLUTION by Shane Claiborne (which I
highly recommend)
Here is the story.
“Michelle and I headed out to get a loaf of bread. We walked
and underneath the tracks just a block for our house, a strip notorious for
prostitution and drug trafficking, where the air is thick with tears and
struggle. We walked past an alley and tucked inside was a woman, tattered,
cold, and on crutches. She approached me, asking if I wanted her services. Our
hearts sank, but we scurried on to get our bread. Then we headed quickly home,
nodding at the woman as we passed. When we got home and opened the bread, we
noticed the bag had a large gash in the side and the bread had gone bad. We
would have to go back, and we both knew what that meant. We would have to walk
by that woman again. We walked by the alley and saw her in there crying,
shivering. We got our bread, and as we saw her yet again. We would not just
pass by. We stopped and told her we cared for her, that she was precious, worth
more than a few bucks for trick on an avenue. We explained we had a home that
was a safe place to get warm and a have a snack. So she stumbled onto her
crutches and came home with us.
As soon as we entered the house, she started weeping
hysterically, Michelle held her as she wept. When she had gained her composure,
she said, “You all are Christians, aren’t you?” Michelle and I looked at each
other startled. We had said nothing about God or Jesus, and our house doesn’t
have a cross in the window, a neon “Jesus saves” sign, or even a little
Christian fish on the wall. She said, “I know that you are Christians because
you shine. I used to be in love with Jesus like that, and when I was, I shined
like diamonds in the sky, like the stars. But it’s a cold dark world, and I
lost my shine a little while back. I lost my shine on those streets.” At that
point we were all weeping, she asked us to pray with her that she might shine
again. We did; we prayed that this dark world would not take away our shine.
Days, weeks went by, we did not see her. One day, there was
a knock at the door, and I opened it. On the step there was a lovely lady with
a contagious ear-to-ear smile. We stared at each other. We see a lot of people,
so I was going to try to fake recognizing her, but she called my bluff and beat
me to it. “Of course you don’t recognize me, because I’m shining again”. Then I
knew. She went on to explain how deeply she had fallen in love with God again.
“
My prayer,
I want to shine
I want “contagious love” to shine, that it can only be describe as the love of
Jesus
I want to help people shine
I want the lost to shine
I want the broken to shine
I want this world to shine
As God has blessed me with this amazing opportunity to do
missionary work around the world, I want to be broken for his people, serving,
loving and shinning with the love of Christ. Some days I am so scared of
leaving but most days I am shaken up, crying with passionate joy because God
loves, protection, grace, redemption, freedom will bring hope. We just need to believe.
