...Ignore the Homeless

Wait, no. That's not right. But I got your attention, right? After all, scripture straight up says "¹³ If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered." Proverbs 21:13

And yet, here I am: an upper middle class white girl, content to walk by those in need despite my Corporate Salary.

I understand entire political parties are divided on what kind of help we, as a country, should provide for those under the poverty line. I will not claim to solve all the world's issues by a single blog post. But I'm convicted.

My conviction likely came from 1 of 3 places:

1) This video of a homeless man in Chicago my church recently featured. My pastor is incredibly passionate about caring for our local community. Therefore, he initiated a series called "Jesus in the Trenches" where we discuss how Jesus got his hands dirty with people. Furthermore, Jesus expects the same of us.

Ronald Davis, the man in this video, tearfully explains to the camera crew that he is not a bum.  After a sweet sermon, my pastor charged all of us to care for the needy of Dover. He asked that we reserve cash in our wallet to do the Lord's will with that week. I left pretty pumped!

2) My newest online friend/girl crush, Rachel Karman. Rachel runs a blog from LA called Hit on by the Homeless, documenting her work with the at-risk population on skid row. She caught my attention because of her graceful response to the #FitchTheHomeless hooplah going on in the twittersphere.

She described the homeless, who are often regarded as either permanent street fixtures or statistics, as friends. The 3.5 million people who experience homelessness in a year have valid opinions and feelings that can be hurt. Perhaps you'd already come to this novel conclusion. I, however, apparently needed a kick in the pants to realize this.

3) While options 1 and 2 were incredibly compelling to me, it was likely my wild encounter today that led to heavy guilt on my conscience. During my lunch hour, I sat on the river bank by the library in the ho-hum town in which I work. I frequent this spot as respite from the office but today was different. My bible was open as I leaned against the cypress tree and a man approached me.
"What are you studying, young lady?"
"The bible."
"Good for you! What part?"
"Genesis - I'm reading about Joseph."
This simple and honest exchange led to a 30 minute conversation about life, and more importantly, Jesus. My new friend, Charlie, explained his hardships in life as he cracked open his beer. I often say that my favorite thing about people is their story. Through the unveiling of Charlie's story, I discovered that Charlie believed God was good but that he'd had a rough life.

Because of the passage I still had open, I was equipped with an account that seemed so applicable to Charlie. Joseph was dealt a pretty crappy lot. He was offered great temptation. And yet, Joseph was obedient to God. Genesis 39 says that God showed Joseph steadfast love and ensured anything he did succeeded.  

I told Charlie I could not possibly imagine the hard life he'd been dealt. And that my prayer for him, and myself, would be for obedience like Joseph's.

He was beaming. He said he could see joy glowing from my face. He then offered to buy me lunch sometime. Did you catch that? He offered to buy me lunch. Granted, this was mostly a come-on but still...what incredible generosity!

My lunch hour was up so I exited the scene, saying I hoped to see him around town. As I drove away, I remembered my pastor's charge (see option 1). The excitement I'd felt leaving that sermon waned: I had failed. I did not have cash on me, nor anything else tangible to offer Charlie. I missed the opportunity to provide for this man's physical needs.

Certainly, I could pat myself on the back for feeding his "spiritual poverty". But at the end of the day, I am a fool if I believe I did all I could for Charlie today.


The best part of all of this? Charlie lives in my own little suburbia. Sorry youth group kids, you don't need to go on a mission trip anywhere to fulfill the charge to "³ Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. ⁴ Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 82:3-4 

In the pursuit of holiness, being shoved outside of my comfort zone is required. Giving, both spiritually and tangibly, is required. Being a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant doesn't make me holy; being kind to the needy does. 

...Work a Corporate Job

I am a Christian. I also work for The Man. While it's no Goliath National Bank, I own stock in the $3 billion corporation. I have business cards with the boring-ish blue logo on them. It's not my ideal world but I am making an honest living in my 40-hour-a-week-cubicle. 

I have many friends who work in full-time ministry. I am incredibly grateful for them. Actually, sometimes I want to be them. And yet, not for any reason that they themselves have given me, working a Corporate job makes me feel like a second-class Christian. 

Jon Acuff, author of Stuff Christians Like (among many other awesome works) hilariously approaches the desire to go into full-time ministry, calling its workers "professional Christians:" 

"'I wish God was my boss. That would be awesome. He wouldn't care about my sales sheet. He would care about my soul sheet.' Then you feel a little embarrassed becuase it was that was such a low quality joke...You tell your friends, 'There has to be more to life than this. I need to be serving God with my talents full time.'" 

Perhaps that's true. But I wonder where I got this idea that I would achieve first-class Christian status by being hired by a faith-based organization? 

A few months ago, I met a phenomenal woman who has been in full-time ministry for many years. Upon my introduction I said I wasn't "crazy about the corporate world." She hastily replied "Well, of course you're not: you've tasted The Kingdom." Immediately, I agreed. But as I contemplated the matter-of-fact statement, I thought "Isn't the implication, then, that others who work in the corporate world haven't tasted The Kingdom of God?" That for-profiters don't have the opportunty to taste and see that The Lord is good? I think her intentions were pure in saying this to me. In fact, I think she probably wakes up everyday realizing the blessing of receiving a paycheck for preaching the gospel.

Still...I don't like when people tell me life. It makes me think of my favorite scene in the Italian-cult-classic, Moonstruck. The young Nicholas Cage and even bigger-haired Cher get in a shouting match. In her heavy Brookyln accent she says "I'm tellin' you your life!", implying that she knows his life better than he does. 

Does that make me the angsty Nick Cage then? Maybe. But the fact of the matter is that not everyone can receive a paycheck from a ministry.  Who would fund them if all Believers worked for ministries? Who would build connections with people in those corporate offices? If we all worked for churches or organizations with "justice" in the title, Christians would rarely interact with those who don't share our beliefs without them being "work". People don't want to be your work; they want to be cared for (see Ronny and Loretta). 

The beauty of the world is that it's not divided into good guys and bad guys. Or Christians and non-Christians. As Christians, we should never divide ourselves as "us" and "them": a perspective I've gained by working for a public company. 

Whether they're the backbone of a social good organization or on the streets teaching scripture, I have great respect for those who give up their lives, in and out of work, for a cause. Maybe someday I'll work for a life-altering, chill-inducing non-profit organization. 
For now though, in my short life, I have been denied for jobs with ministries. 

And the lie of the world is that I'm not a good enough Christian. I am not righteous enough, pious enough, selfless enough. When the truth is: I'm not called to it. I work in Corporate America. In a booming industry. Where projects drive a bottom line and that bottom line is fiduciary, not altruistic.

It would be easy to believe that bottom line doesn't contribute to The Kingdom. The alternative? To combat the lie that the privilege to work in full-time ministry directly correlates to a higher degree of holiness.

...Date

As dating was the trigger subject in the "still be holy" concept, I feel it's an appropriate spring-board.

Yes, the Christian dating scene has been beaten to death. But that's my point: it's been beaten...to death. Like there's not even whimpering breath left in it.

I find that Christian culture has largely demonized dating.

Growing up, my dad made me read books like I Kissed Dating Goodbye and I Gave Dating a Chance (whose book description actually calls "dating" a "dirty word"). So my 15-year-old self thought this stringent dating view was simply because I was too young. But now, 8 years later, I still feel oppressive judgement in dating. As if people are saying "No no, you don't want that."

It's as though somewhere along the road, someone told me dating makes someone's heart weak or is only reserved for those who don't know how to be alone.

One day, I literally quoted to a friend "Sometimes I think I want to be in a relationship but then I realize I'm too busy being awesome." I wasn't even directly quoting Barney Stinson. Where did I get that idea? That somehow dating and not-being-awesome were linked?

Perhaps it's a result of the pressure of already-married friends. Perhaps it's my incredibly low percentage of fellow Christian friends who are actually dating; skipping right from "talking" to "WE'RE GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW". More likely, it has to do with the lack of scripture that points to courting in our vastly different cultures. 

Regardless, my feelings on the subject came to a head during a phone conversation with my best friend. I found myself shyly telling her how nice it would be to go on a date. I expressed that I "selfishly wanted someone to take interest in me." I could actually hear her roll her eyes as she said, "You know you're not crazy, right? You're 23 - of course that's a natural desire for you to want to date."

As I exhaled, I felt my 3-dateless-years (yeah, 3) release with the carbon dioxide. "I can still trust that the Lord will provide AND desire to go to dinner and movie with a nice guy! Whoa!"

I am not negating His promises by wanting to date, nor disobeying.  I am not sacrificing closeness with the Lord by opening up to a dating relationship.  I am not rushing God's timing by actively choosing to date.

Matters of the heart are delicate - I get that. I am not suggesting that we singles should be reckless.  Yes, these things come with time. There's no need to hurry. But in the mean time, it's a nice reminder that we were created for relationships, not even just romantic ones. We are wired to love and to desire love.

Perhaps it will be another 3 years before I go on another date. And that's fine. As long as I can rest in the fact that I'm normal for wanting to date. And so are you.

You Can Still Be Holy and...Not Be Holier Than Thou

ho·ly adjective /ˈhōlē/
:dedicated or devoted to the service of God, the church, or religion; pious; having a spiritually pure quality. 

I am a Christian. And as a Christian, I will say – sometimes Christians take life too seriously. After an illuminating conversation with a friend, I realized that the call to be holy often stands in the way of relaxation in life.

Here I will explore the experiences that lead me to believe we can still be holy without being legalistic or super intense (umm, Pharisees, anyone?).

Whether you’re a Christian or not, you could probably come up with examples of times when someone made you feel guilty about life decisions. I don’t even mean major life decisions – I mean, “why did you choose that shade of lipstick”-kind-of-decisions too. Which begs the question: why the heck do we do that?

So fill in the blank:

• You can still be holy and [date].
• You can still be holy and [like celebrities].
• You can still be holy and [have depression].
• You can still be holy and [be a social drinker].

You name it. We’ll talk about it.