A story about James
Monday night I heard a really cool story about faith in the most unlikely of places. This story spoke directly to my heart because it took place on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, very close to where I went to school and where the focus of my mother's ministry lies. Skid row has always been a place that I have been challenged and broken. Several friends and I during college would go there with a few pizzas and open hearts, and simply sit down with the homeless and hang out. I can remember listening to a woman's story and hearing her hopes of how to get out of the situation. She was there through no major fault of her own - she was a good person dealt a bad hand in life. As I was listening to her, beyond her face within a mile I could see the Los Angeles skyline, the large buildings and skyscrapers standing in the background. Here was this woman, short on money and luck, living in a box beneath the symbols of wealth and commerce on the west coast. She told me with great passion and excitement how she had planned to get off skid row. First she would get a job and start saving, then she would buy a car so she could live in that and get off the streets and get cleaned up, save more money, etc., etc. She can't get a job until she gets cleaned up, and can't keep the job unless she's cleaned up. Its a vicious cycle. Heartbreaking.
So Spokes tells me this story of this missions trip to Skid Row (spokes is native Coloradan). On the trip they did a bunch of different things with a bunch of different ministries all over town. On his first day out, they had $9 to get breakfast for himself, 2 partners, and one homeless person. They opted for the 99 cent menu at McDonald's. Good choice college students! The man they met was James, and he was genuinely grateful for breakfast. Here's the best part - in the middle of eating James says, you know how good God is? He always provides for me exactly what I need.
Woah! Dude's homeless! I get ticked off when I get tomatoes on my hamburger. Homebody ain't got no home and he's stoked on God's provision. Wow.
So, as the week carried on and Spokes moved from ministry to ministry, he kept seeing James in different places. On the street here, in a soup kitchen there, often local to where he met James, but sometimes a good ten miles away. And James was always smiling. Always content. Content. A man who had nothing understood being content. He understood his true source of joy and provision. Thats a role model that I want to have.
posted by Devo @ 3:32 PM
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