On Friday nights a few of us from church have been serving the community by having a free bbq on the streets of Wellington. We park our bbq in front of one of the brothels in town and hand out sausages to the homeless, the prostitutes, and the usual crowd of Friday night party-goers.
The conversations that come out of a simple gesture are amazing. First, people are shocked that you are handing them free food, no strings attached. So typically they ask why and we simply reply that we are a group of Christians that want to show God’s love to them because of His great love for us. That is when the conversations, the questions, sometime the tears or the accusations begin pouring out. I’ve been asked the hardest questions by people and have prayed with prostitutes and bantered with drunk businessmen.
The hardest moment I had was while talking to one of the regular prostitutes that comes by. She was telling me of her difficulties, we talked about the Lord, about prayer, about hope, but when she had finished eating she turned and said, "Well I guess I'm going to go see if I can make some more money".
What do I do? I asked her to stay, told her we can find a place to help her, but the reality is that you can't force people to turn their lives around. She graciously declined my offer and walked away.
It was a profound moment for me, realizing that while poverty and desperation are part of a physical lifestyle for her, it is very much a spiritual reality for countless people in the world. How often are the answers to true joy, and meaning in our lives right there in front of us and we turn away, prostituting ourselves out to whatever will give us instant results?
What are the things you think you need? Where do you go to find instant gratification? I know for me many of the things I turn to for satisfaction are worthless in comparison to true satisfaction in the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment