I think the easiest thing about being a church-goer was that there wasn't really anything to it. Like go and attend and that's pretty much it. I mean, people would tell me what to do and what not to do...but for the most part I never really cared about what they said. And I expose this part of my journey because I think many of us are here. Where it's easy to believe certain things and even pretend to abide by them but there's something drastically different between knowing something and acting upon it.
Saturday night rolled around and like most Saturdays i'm trying to prepare my mind for the long and exhausting Sunday that is to come. All of the sudden I get a call from an unknown Houston number. I don't think about it and I answer it. "Hey...is Justin there?" the caller asks. "Yeah, this is Justin...what's up?" "It's Michael...the homeless guy." At first i had no clue what was going on and honestly, i thought one of my youth was pulling a prank call on me. But then i realized that i had given this homeless guy my business card with my number on it. We chat for awhile and I was trying to figure out what he was calling about and more importantly what for. He really didn't say much...just that he was having a tough week and out of nowhere i go, "Hey man...what are you doing tomorrow? Would you want to go to church with me?" And i'm not really sure what made me do it but I just felt that perhaps i might be able to talk to him in person. But funny enough he goes "alright" and i tell him where our church is located and i feel bad about this next part. He goes "wait a minute...i need to write the directions on the back of my sign". And at that moment i tell him to forget it and i'll just pick him up and drive him to church.
I hang up the phone and my mind kind of goes all over the place. 1) because i've never done anything like this and 2) i start thinking about the "what ifs". The biggest thing that continue to filter into my mind was "what if the church doesn't receive him?" Like i'll play his side and i know scripture time and time again commands us to practice hospitality and to show love to the world - and this was definitely it. I knew in my gut that this is what i was supposed to do biblically. And i think this is going to have to be my filter for the rest of my decisions for the rest of my life. Because that night as i was trying to put a handle of the situation many people were telling me that this wasn't a "wise" idea because "what if the church isn't ready for him? what if he's dirty and smelly? what if he endangers people?" Just a week ago someone came up to me and told me that they found people smoking on our property that attended some of our church events. And they were furious with the situation and wanted us to kick them out because "it might ruin the reputation of our church and this isn't who we are". I kind of stood there and was just dumbfounded. Wait...this isn't the church? Seriously? You're telling me that we're only supposed to take care of people when it's convienent for us? My first impulse was to go to scripture and there i found the parable of the good samaritan. What you have is a man trying to justify himself with religion and the hard in-your-face question that is addressed is "who is my neighbor?". I read that story and i realize that the samaritan (the one who helps in the story) he's put in an unreal situation. Already two religious, powerful men pass by the beat-stranger and yet the samaritan stops, puts him in his car...drives him to the nearest hotel and stays with him over night. Can you imagine that? Do you know what my momma would do to me if i told her i did something like that? But yet the parable conveys the lesson - your neighbor is ANYONE that is in need.
Sorry, back to my story. I talk with Tina about it and though she understands where i'm coming from and the biblical rendering she still worries for my safety. Which...i'm alright with. So i ask Brandon to follow me in the morning in his car. We get there at 8:45 at his "place" and he comes out and the first thing i notice is that he had a can of beer in his hand. I didn't say anything about it, nor would i have, but he goes "man...i'm sorry. I don't mean to offend you by bringing this beer" I guess he thought beer offends christians. So he puts down the beer and he apologizes once again and pulls out another beer from his pocket. haha...i couldn't have cared less but it just makes for a funny story. Anyways i ask him if it would be alright if brandon and i just go to breakfast to just chat. And so we spend the morning over chorizo and listening to his story. The first thing i notice about him was the smell and even after dropping him off for the day my car still smelled as such. And you know...it's not pleasant, but it's reality right?
You know...after breakfast and just chatting with brandon about the whole morning and experience made me think a lot about life, christianity, and homeless people. I think a lot of time we like to compartamentalize these three and i found myself forgetting a lot of lessons that i've learned throughout life about this. But i told myself i'd try to remember, so i'm writing these lessons down...in part 3
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