When people ask me what I do at Galveston Urban Ministries my response is normally that I run an after school program for at risk elementary children.
...the words seem to always fall short and sound empty.
I get strange looks when I struggle to explain in a 5 minute window a job that seems simple on the outside. Most days I am a teacher, a mentor, a friend, an advocate and a mother at the same time to 15 children who live in a world that is completely foreign to most. I am the bad guy who has to lay down rules to enforce healthy boundaries in order for kids to flourish. The mundane does consist of bible lessons, homework help, snacks, and fun field trips but there is a whole other side that keeps most staff members up at night and causes righteous anger. When you decide to care, to invest, and to walk along side people it gets MESSY!
In a single week there has been hard conversations with parents about what it looks like to be a parent, CPS cases, involvement in illegal activity, abuse, parents responding in survival mode, children using drugs and sleeping around because of their innocence being shattered at the age of six, and the list goes on. They have become hardened by the broken world they live in and they are blinded by the reality of the cycle of poverty.
Each day I wake up and help pick up the pieces of broken families and walk beside them to help carrying the pieces. We do it to try and help them see something beautiful out of their pieces. We struggle to speak the same truths over and over again like a broken record in hopes that they too will see that all the broken pieces can become something more, something different, that there is hope!
When the waves of despair start to roar up higher than our heads we lose sight of the purpose
...and start to question.
We question our abilities, our calling, our knowledge, our resources, and we doubt God's goodness and sovereignty.
To me, that is the scariest place! To forget that you are effective in making a difference is exactly where satan wants us to be. We focus on our circumstances and forget to keep our eyes on Jesus, the source of strength, comfort, and guidance. In those moments my prayer is that the Holy Spirit reminds us to take captive each thought and make it obedient to Christ.
I know my job is very different from most. To be honest it's probably a lot to handle on an every day basis. It doesn't fit into a nice tiny box or stay on my desk to be forgotten and picked up the next day. This job is messy and it bleeds through every area of my life. As crazy as it sounds it is my passion! I have learned to live out the calling God has placed on my heart and have been shown how to walk things out in love like Jesus. For me, it just happens to be on the other side of the railroad tracks.
My question is... am I alone in the suffering, struggling, and loving?
You may not have a passion to work with at risk families but are you using your passion to bring glory to God wherever you are?
"Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.'" Matt 9:37
It's more than attending church, tithing, attending small group, participating in a service project once or twice a year, or feeding the homeless at Christmas. YES the body of Christ is called to be devoted to the teachings, fellowship, prayer, and the breaking of bread; BUT the body of Christ is also called to look outward and care for the orphans, widows, the outcasts, and the marginalized.
He has called us to something bigger than an easy mundane life style. He has called to suffer with those who suffer, to mourn with those who mourn, and to rejoice with those who are rejoicing. AND THE CRAZIEST PART IS THAT IT'S NOT ALWAYS EASY, REWARDING, OR EVEN COMFORTABLE!
He calls us to be the hands and feet in order to resemble Christ, THE HOPE, to those who are struggling to carry all their broken pieces by themselves.
I am not saying I do this right and I'm definitely not saying that I do it well. What I am saying is that we are ALL called.
Let us open our eyes to this broken world and speak truth, share THE HOPE that never fails, and ultimately bring glory to His Name!
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