Bring Your Love to Life

I was listening to the radio today and mindlessly singing a song that I have heard a dozen times before. However, today the lyrics of the song came alive and I began to cry as I listened to the words. The song was "Love Come to Life" by Big Daddy Weave.

Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOVF634y6-Y

The part the really caught my attention was "Break my heart 'til it moves my hands and feet, for the hopeless, for the broken. The ones who don't know you love them."

In Evansville I volunteered weekly at the Evansville Christian Life Center in the kitchen and food pantry. I worked on Fridays, but they serve meals every Tuesday-Friday and the food pantry was open on the same schedule. It was the most incredible experience to serve people who needed a hot meal and a warm/cool place to sit down for 30 minutes. To pray with people who had nothing but the clothes on their backs. To work along side people who had a genuine heart to serve the lost and hopeless. To help restore hope through the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

I remember my first Friday in June 2009. We spent the morning preparing food and cooking the meal. At 11:00 we stopped to pray before we began to serve the meal. The people line up in the hallway where there is no air conditioning and wait for us to open the dining room door. The cold air hits them as the door opens, but it heats up quickly in there once it is full of people. As they enter, each person picks up a drink - tea, kool-aid, or water usually - and finds a seat. Most days they could also grab a dessert from the dessert cart before sitting down. We carry plates out to each person and serve them as though it is a restaurant. Each person can have as many plates as he or she can eat, but the posted sign asked that people only stay about 30 minutes to make room for new arrivals.

As I walked into the dining room with a smile and my first two plates it was all I could do to keep from crying. I saw a woman with her two preschool age daughters. I saw elderly men and women. I saw young families. I saw white people, black people, hispanic people. I could smell body odor and filth. I also saw grateful smiles and heard laughter between friends. I heard please and thank you as I passed a new plate or cleared away dirty ones. It was a safe place where for a few minutes a person who is broken and beaten down by life could take refuge and not feel judged.

The greatest thing about being there every Friday was building relationships with people whom I would have otherwise never met. I gained a greater appreciation for what I have and how quickly material things can be taken away - through bad choice or things outside a persons control. Each time I had the opportunity to pray with a "customer" in the food pantry I always prayed that they would experience unspeakable joy that only comes from God inspite of their circumstances.

In a sermon I heard many years ago, the pastor gave the book of Philippians the subtitle "The Joy of the Lord is my Strength." That is my heart's desire for every moment, every situation, every encounter.

Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians while he was in prison. His perspective can only be explained by his relationship with his Savior.

Philippians 4:10-13 "I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

I hope one day soon I will find a place to serve here in Fayetteville just like the ECLC (as we called it) in Evansville.