We went downtown again yesterday. Fed probably 60 or so people, gave out countless blankets, sleeping bags, jackets, sweatshirts, and sandwiches to take with them. After set up, I went out on what my buddy Ross would call a "sortie" - to find men and women who could use a bowl of soup and a cup of coffee. The first guy I came across was a man named Michael. He had a little dog with him named Gidget. We asked him if he would like some home-made soup and a cup of coffee and he said that sounded great. He began walking over and we continued on the other direction to find more "homies." When we got back to our little sanctuary under the Burnside Bridge I struck up a conversation with Michael. He said him and God had a "falling out, if you want to call it that." I dug a little deeper and he said that after 19 years in a church in Billings, Montana he had fallen on hard times and had lost his job and was in the process of losing his house. He went to his church for help and they said they couldn't do much for him. So, he quickly became homeless, angry and bitter. Tired of the chilly snow storms in Montana, he headed west. He had been in Portland for 4 months and was a cook still looking for a job.
After 30 minutes or so of conversation, I could tell that Michael was a kind man with a big heart, one who put others first. Take for example his dog, Gidget. He could easily qualify for a bed at the Rescue Mission, but he refuses because they will not take Gidget, and he is unwilling to leave her out on the streets or give her up to an animal shelter, so he takes care of her and she takes care of him (she sleeps at the end of his sleeping bag and keeps his feet nice and warm). He said he hadn't eaten in a day and a half, but his dog had a full belly and plenty of food in his pack - he would give you a look like he was extra serious, turning his head slightly sideways and look at you mostly through one eye - "she eats first, period." Michael is loved by God.
Michael is angry at the people in his church in Billings, but he is also angry at God. He blames the church, what he called "God manifest on earth," for not being there when he needed them. Michael's anger is displaced. So how do we reach people like Michael?
You can't shove the Gospel down Michael's throat, he has heard it all before. You can't tell a guy like Michael that God loves him, you have to show him that God loves him, you have to prove it to him.
Our "mission statement" of sorts, for our journey is "Bringing the love of Jesus to the poor and marginalized through life's basic necessities." I believe this is what Jesus wants for all of us, to bring the love of Christ to others through simplistic acts of kindness and love. So many of us just don't get it, we try to convince intellectually when what we should be trying to do is demonstrating tangibly. We over-think things, we make it too complicated and complex. Christ's mission statement was simple: "[part I] Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [part II] Love your neighbor as yourself.'
I'm not sure what Michael's church in Billings mission statement is, but if it is similar to Christ's, they aren't following it.
So how do we reach out to Michael? We give him a cup of coffee, we listen to his story, and we pet his dog. Hopefully, all of this whispers from the depths of his soul, reinforcing something he already knows - "my God loves me." I pray that Michael knows this tonight.
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