Unexpected Moments

Unexpected Moments

One of my most recent unexpected moment was at a recent inner city mission's trip

Mike and I had taken 8 of our discipleship class students to a nearby city

to  join in on some compassion work that was being done there

For the most part it all ran according to plan

I was serving lunch at the soup kitchen to some 500 guests

and out of the blue I burst into tears

There were so many needs

So many faces

so many children

It was hard to understand why an eight year old has to carry her one year old

sister to the soup kitchen to feed her because if she doesn't  she will not  eat all day  

It was hard to listen to stories of jobs people cannot hold due to their addictions

It was hard to pray with a man who believes in God and has lost his way

and doesn't know if he will find his way back

It was hard to see so many difficult circumstances
it's hard to hear so many broken stories

but these are  stories they want to share with me

they want to share their life with me

some seem to have lost hope

some seem to not care

some just seem to exist

but they want to share their story with me

The interesting part of all this is that
none of this surprises me
I have worked in numerous soup kitchens all over the world
none of this is new

so what happened?

I had an unexpected moment of feeling lost and helpless right in my own back yard
one does not need to necessarily travel across the world to see pain and suffering

in my last blog i wrote
"In this uncomfortableness I am reminded of who I am in all of this"

once again i am being reminded but this time it is close to home

I don't need to go far to realize that
people are lost and hurting all over

this is hard

and hard is uncomfortable

I am being challenged with the hard
with the things that make me cry
with the things that matter to God
challenged here at home and across the world

I don't want to stop doing the hard
I want to listen and care
even if it costs me something
and even if I can't 'fix' it all

i want to continue to be challenged with what it means to care,
to listen, to be uncomfortable and to step up and do something

people want to be seen and heard everywhere
people want to feel like they matter

we all have stories to share
we all need love
we all need compassion

each of us has a story
each of us craves to be heard

who do you need to listen to ...

let's listen