Sorry folks, but I cannot get these images out of my head.
In the “As it was …” picture, you see a space where people who had noplace to go were welcome. It didn’t matter what they had done or where they were from, they could go to The Lord’s Rain most mornings and get coffee, food (when available), a shower and even some new-to-them clothes (also, if available).
It was the place where Terry wound up after a night of looking for someone to rob to buy drugs, and instead found his way into a temporary shelter and then into healing of his addiction and a complete “180” in his life.
It was here that I met Elly, at first a troublemaker, but who gradually softened over time, when exposed to something amazing, called Love. I remember her, in a near-hysterical, drugged-out stage, wailing about being separated from her children; holding her, and telling her, “honey, look at yourself: would you want your children raised by you?” She shook her head. “I’ve seen you at your best, and you’re wonderful.” I have no idea whether she ever did get off the drugs, but at least, she got a glimpse of what was possible, in the midst of a society that would rather just give her a clean needle and a nurse to make sure she didn’t overdose.
Ken found a place to serve the Lord Who had rescued him from his addictions. You can read more about him here (just scroll down a bit) After he died, a chap named Joe took up the jobs Ken had been doing at the Mission, as his way of paying tribute to his friend.
I look at these pictures and think of Danilo and John and Gary and Mike and Vanessa and Megan and Denise and Shannon and Ron and Gerald and Darrell and Richard and Cheryl and Devona … people who needed to know that they were not a waste of skin, but that Jesus Christ went to the cross on behalf of every one of them. That the yoke they were under was destroyed because of His anointing (Isaiah 10:27).
And I look at the “… as it is” picture, with one side of the ground floor already leased and another side still available for possible use as a restaurant (and isn’t that exactly what the area needs?), and I wonder where they and others like them — other human beings, I might add — will go?
Part of the answer is: around the corner, outside the boarded-up former Army and Navy Department Store, looking across the street at the empty lot that will soon be ANOTHER VIBRANT NEW COMMUNITY in one of the world’s “Most Livable Cities”.
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
‘for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;
‘I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
“Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
“And these will go away into everlasting punishment … ”
— Matthew 25:42-46a
Maybe the better question is, where are we going?
Two Minutes for Cross-Checking! 