Okay, let’s just get honest here. I’m a 21 year old white girl, who has never really been exposed to the culture associated with downtown Monroe or the south side until recently. I’ve always had clean clothes to wear, never experienced hunger, and have seen every physical need I’ve ever had met before I even knew to ask for it. Technically, I’m “not supposed” to fit in with some of the places the Lord has given me passion for.
A little over a year ago, I went to a local ministry that serves meals to the poor and homeless population downtown. I immediately fell in love with the people there, one family in particular. This family includes several children, but my most immediate connection was with a nine year old girl, who dreams of being a nurse. After several months of getting to know her and her family, they invited me to walk with them to their home after they received food from the ministry. People who do not know me or the family I was with, stopped their vehicles to express their concern.
“Don’t you know that this is dangerous?”
The unspoken message that is taught in our culture is that there should be fear in these situations. I understand the need for safety, and the concern that comes with all that can and does happen on the streets. Since God is perfect love, we know that when we are walking with Him that all fear is removed-“there is no fear in love.”(1 John 4:18).
James 1:5 tells us, “if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you”. Relying on the Lord’s abundant supply of wisdom allows us to walk down streets with confidence, knowing that there is complete protection in His will.
“You don’t have to walk down here.”
The people that I fell in love with that day, I did not love because of their color or because I saw them as a cool spiritual project, but because the Lord allowed me to feel a fraction of the love that He has for them.
In John 4, we see the Lord’s heart for the “forbidden streets” as Jesus goes through Samaria while traveling to Galilee. Verse four states, “He had to go through Samaria on the way”. According to the beliefs and religious culture, Jesus did not have to go through this town of the unwanted, untrusted people…He could have taken the longer path to avoid the “burden”. But no, Jesus was not concerned with how unclean, unworthy, or disconnected from God these people were. He simply had to go because He was motivated by His love for the unwanted one. The very fact that Jesus spoke to her astonished her, because she had been told for so long that she was not worthy of being seen or encountered.
“Why are you doing this?”
I am doing this because I was the Samaritan woman. Jesus traveled down “forbidden streets” just to encounter me in the middle of my mess. He found me to be more important than culture or stereotypes, and the Holy Spirit inside of me motivates my actions to do just as He did for me.
The Samaritan woman traveled to the well to see a physical need met, just as the people downtown come to see physical provision for their hunger and thirst. What we often forget is that the “gift that God has” for each of us, Jesus Christ, provides a spiritual abundance of what our physical bodies cry out for.
Thirst and hunger demand to be constantly satisfied. Through Jesus, we are able to offer a “fresh, bubbling spring” so they will never be thirsty again. This is available to all of those who we have wrongly deemed unworthy, unclean, and uncovered by grace.
Yesterday, we celebrated the 10th birthday of the little girl I spoke of earlier. Once again, I found myself walking them down the same street, still being questioned about why I was there. The entire purpose of a 21 year old white girl doing ministry on the “forbidden streets”, is to show a love that transcends all cultural and racial dissension, and is so much deeper than three layers of skin. They are and always will be worth the walk.
