Late last night I completed a DMin project that I have been working hard on for five months. After submitting it to my professor, I collapsed on the couch with my wife and we started into a nice conversation about how nice it will be to have my schedule freed up from the demands of this latest class. All I wanted to do was relax. But... sometimes God chooses to work through us in the moments when we least expect it. In my particular case last night, that moment came with the ring of our doorbell while I was relaxing on my couch.
"I wonder who that could be?" We ask ourselves that question a lot because our doorbell gets used a lot by people in our neighborhood. We have a pretty steady stream of visitors on any given day. But it is still unusual for us to have visitors late at night. I could see a face peaking in the window beside our front door, and I opened the door to find a fourteen year old LAMP boy who was distraught and hurt. He had just been jumped and robbed by a group of about ten other boys, and for some reason he decided to come to our house for help. He was badly bruised and his clothes were all torn, so we got him cleaned up, gave him some clothes to wear, offered him something to eat and drink, and then started the process of asking him to open up about what had just happened to him. It turns out that I know the leader of the group who jumped him... ironically, also one of our LAMP kids from a different part of Homewood. Once the situation was stabilized, I decided to drive him home. He lives on one of the most dangerous streets in Pittsburgh, so I wanted to make sure he made it home safely. As I walked him to his front door, his mother and brothers were on the front porch and we all had a chance to discuss the situation. I got to stay for a while to minister to the family.
This story is an example of the importance of incarnational leadership. Ministry does not always happen at convenient times or in sterile environments. Many Christians want to help people who are hurting, but they are not willing to risk going into messy environments at inconvenient hours. This is not surprising. We have been taught to think that real ministry happens in clean environments (the church building) at convenient times (Sunday mornings). Many people on staff at churches or parachurch organizations believe that ministry happens on weekdays between the hours of 9am and 5pm. My philosophy is that a broken down row home on one of the most dangerous streets in Pittsburgh during the middle of the night in the aftermath of a street fight is holy ground. That is the type of situation where Jesus wants to work through us to enter into the pain of the world. It's where the best ministry happens... with hurting people in their territory and on their time table. The Holy Spirit was at work in my neighborhood before my family and I got here, and the Spirit will be at work here long after we are gone. But for right now my calling is to find out where the Spirit is working and minister to people in that context.
A lot happened last night in Pittsburgh. Last night, hundreds of thousands of people who are "just too busy to mentor a kid right now" sat down in front of their TV screens to watch the local news stations describe in vivid, dramatic details the violence being committed by inner city youths. Penguin fans anxiously awaited the start of the free agency signing period to begin at midnight. Discouraged Pirate fans celebrated a rare victory over the Chicago Cubs. Maybe somebody went out to a movie, or took in a play, or went to a concert, or went out to eat, or surfed the internet, or played video games for hours, or balanced their budgets to make sure enough money is going into their retirement accounts. A college student got drunk at a bar. A lonely businessman got high in his hotel room after buying drugs in my neighborhood. A kid went to bed hungry. A homeless man looked for a place to sleep. A prostitute found her spot on the corner, settling anxiously into her own personal hell. Last night, a boy who is slipping through the cracks in society got beat up in a neighborhood that most people ignore or intentionally stay away from. I know exactly where Jesus wanted me to be last night. How about you?
2 comments:
Bryan, what an incredible honor for you and your family to be in the right place at the right time...no mere coincidence. He chose you to come and seek attention and help from which is evidence you are being used in the must unique of places.
Bryan
Dude, you hit the nail right on the head!! The last few weeks Val and I have been ministering to a young woman dealing with a whole raft of issues. God just unmistakebly put her in our path, dead center. If you are a Christ follower, and open to being used by Him, things like this will happen on a regular basis.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about the story of the Good Samaratan. When God puts someone directly in front of you, broken and bleeding (figuratively or literally), how can you just step over them and keep on walking? I can't - I won't. But so many Christians are like the priest or the Levite. I don't know how they sleep at night.
John V
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