Homeless

I've been working at the UGM's Crisis shelter for women and children for almost two weeks now. It feels a little bit like an internalized giggle when I think about it, because I would have never dreamed in a million years that I would 1) ever work at a homeless shelter (sad, but true), and 2) LOVE it.

In just one week my eyes have been opened wider than I knew possible to the true and utter brokenness of our world. To be completely honest, God had to fight me on this one. I really didn't want to work there. I knew what kind of people lived in homeless shelters: drug addicts, mentally ill, alcoholics, and so on. I grew up with all of that and I am still healing from the wounds caused by it--why would I ever want to put myself in the middle of "those people?" Thankfully God does not allow us to be lead astray when we truly seek after and follow Him. It was only a few weeks before my first visit to the shelter that I felt the Spirit speak, "My people are here," referring to the city. I shadowed one of the staff before committing to the job, and again, I heard the Spirit within me speak, "I want my daughters here." I knew that God had created this shelter in the middle of a broken city as a refuge for women to go to experience physical and spiritual safety. Whether I ended up working there or not, I felt peace that God was at work in that place.

A little over a week later, in a battle against my very own flesh, I accepted the position at the shelter. Immediately I felt peace. As I have met my entire staff team and begun working with the women, I am in awe of God's provision for me. Not only am I daily encouraged and built up by some of the most amazing people I've ever met, I am humbled by my own narrow-mindedness as I get to love on women who are so much like you and me. Behind the drug addiction, mental illness, domestic abuse, etc., there are so many wounded little girls desperately searching for someone to love and rescue them. I am finding that daily I am repenting of my own sin, saying, "Oh Lord, I struggle with that. Help me, so then I can help her." I am humbled by my realization that I could very easily be one step away from being in their shoes--being victimized by rape, marrying a man who turns out to be someone I didn't know him to be, experiencing a financial crisis, experiencing a physical tragedy that leaves me disabled, taking one small step that could lead me to a downward spiral I would have never chosen to go on had I known the ramifications of my actions, or simply being decieved into believing I could trust someone/something I couldn't. The list is endless... but the truth is that I am just as capable as any of them of making choices that lead me to the same place they are today.

My second day of work I was sitting with a couple of women listening to them talk with my boss about relationships. One of the ladies said (about a man she's been in and out of a relationship with), "I have never felt this for any man before. When I'm with him, I feel home." I couldn't help but think, "No, honey, Jesus keeps taking him from you because He wants to be your home." Jesus is home. Not just for her and for those who don't have a place called home--He is home for me. He is home for you. The truth is, until we really know Jesus, we are just as homeless as all of these women are.

http://www.undertheoverpass.com/uop/video/undertheoverpass_20050930.wmv