REALITY CHECK ON AISLE 7 You dont have to be friends with me on Facebook to know I have a good life—rich and full of people who love. Its warm and cozy here on 11th Street. Grace and peace abound. Im more content at 52 than I have ever been in my whole life. It is just as accurate to say I live on Easy Street, as it is easy to retreat here and let the world outside pass by. Barely a block away from my house sits a Walmart Super Center. One time, after coming home from Haiti, I counted 18 days from before I left until several days after returning home that I didnt go through those doors once. This may be my record, except for those three weeks I spent in Asia a while back. I go to Walmart frequently. I went there today after church. One single trip to Mineral Wells Walmart is all I need to snap me out of my dream world. Sunday afternoon is surely the craziest time there, especially during the holidays. I cant help but believe it is the Holy Spirit Who opens my eyes every time I go there to the brokenness of my city—the poverty, the drug use, the oppression, the darkness. Oh, I see friends there, too. People I never run into anywhere else and have known for years. Church family. Former church family. Its a melting pot of lives from every walk of life. No matter how single-minded I am about what Im there to purchase when I exit my car, I quickly begin to see people instead with my spirit. Children. Elderly. So many with poor health and very little hygiene habits. Rotted teeth. Dirty clothes. Empty stares. Loneliness. Oh, my heart! What in the world is it Im called to? Certainly not to run back home and hide away in my content little corner at the end of Easy Street. I know I cant fix this city, but I have to truly ask the Lord why He shows me these things that so deeply affect my soul and compel me into compassion. Can I waste the compassion He creates in me by doing nothing in response to it? Yes, I can! I dont want to do that. Not today anyway...
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 20:56:32 +0000