The Least of These

As the New Year approaches, I find myself reflecting back on 2017 and all the changes this year has brought.  By far the biggest change was leaving my role as Manager of the York Economy Store to help launch a new Development & Community Engagement Office at LifePath Christian Ministries.  This would prove to be a very difficult transition for me because I questioned if God could use me in this new role as much as he had at the store to impact the lives of so many people who are in need.

The opportunities for ministry at the store were all around me every day.  I had the honor of working side by side with dozens of men who were assigned to the store while they were part of our long-term recovery program and living in our homeless shelter.  I also ministered to our struggling neighbors in need who came into the store on a daily basis requesting assistance with clothing, shoes, furniture, beds and all the things that you and I take for granted. This experience has forever altered how I perceive the homeless population and those who are living in poverty.

Yes, it’s true that many of them had made some poor choices in their lives.  But so had I.  Many of the choices I made could have landed me in a similar position to the one our guests now found themselves in, but for the mercy of God.  As Jesus said to the Pharisees who condemned the woman caught in adultery, “if any one of you is without sin, let him be the one to cast the first stone.”  The sobering reality is that all of us are only one poor choice, one bad decision, or one difficult circumstance away from finding ourselves living in the streets or staying at a homeless shelter.

After doing life with these men and women for almost one year, I discovered that I had much more in common with them than I assumed from the outset.  I found that they wanted the exact same things in life that I wanted, and that all people want.  They wanted someone to care about them and take time to listen to them.  They wanted someone to believe in them and encourage them that better days are ahead.  They wanted to be valued and respected for who they are and the talents they possessed.  But above all, they wanted to be part of a larger community where they are loved, welcomed, embraced and accepted no matter what their background is and what mistakes they have made in the past.

This is why so many of them come to the York Economy Store day after day, month after month and year after year.  They are not coming just to buy things or seek assistance.  They are coming because they know they will find what they are in such desperate need of when they walk through our doors.  Our customers know they will find people who will engage with them and show concern for them.  Who will not judge them based on race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic standing, but treat them with dignity and respect.  Who will rejoice with them when they are rejoicing, and mourn when they are mourning.  Who will lend a sympathetic ear when they are facing a difficult time in their lives and offer some words of advice and encouragement.  In short, they know they will find love, acceptance, and community.  And for some who are leading quiet lives of desperation, the store has in a way become life itself.  It’s where they connect with the outside world and become part of something larger than themselves.  And that is why it was so hard for me to leave the store, for I too had become part of this incredible community.

There are so many experiences I could share that illustrate what this community is like, but there is one in particular that will stay with me for the remainder of my days here on earth.  Oddly enough, it occurred in my final week at the store as I was struggling with the realization that I would be moving into a new role in a few days.  Could it be that God was trying to tell me something?

One of the dangers of being in ministry is that it can become routine, just like any job or vocation.  I discovered that I must constantly be on guard against complacency so I don’t miss an opportunity that God has given me to speak into someone’s life.  A good example of this at the store is our clothing voucher program.  Every Monday, Thursday, and Friday from 1:00 – 2:00 pm we provide free clothing vouchers to the public.

When I first started doing the vouchers, I had some of the most amazing conversations with our customers and I soon found this was one of the best opportunities for ministry at the store.  But after doing hundreds of vouchers over the course of a year, it had become routine and I was no longer investing as much time in the voucher program as I once had.  I rationalized this decision by convincing myself that I was too busy and had way too many other things to do that were more important to the success of the store.  Therefore, it was okay that I was not spending as much time with customers who were coming in for vouchers as I had done in the beginning.  Or at least, that is what I tried to convince myself of.  And that’s when God, in His perfect timing, intervened to remind me of why He had placed me at the store in the first place, and why He was about to move me into a new role that I was not ready to embrace.

On this particular day, I was absorbed in the day to day operation of the store as usual.  There were trucks to be loaded (and unloaded), donations to be received, customer pickups to be handled, recycled clothes to be baled, donations to be processed, shoppers to assist, and requests for assistance to be responded to.  Then at about 12:50 pm I was reminded that it was a voucher day when six men walked in the store requesting clothing vouchers.  I can remember my initial reaction as being one of slight irritation, as I would now have to stop everything I was doing to assist these gentlemen.

Rather reluctantly, I began walking toward the front of the store where I welcomed the men and explained how the voucher program worked.  Nothing struck me as particularly unusual about any of them.  They were a typically diverse group in age, race and personality.  After explaining the program to them. I walked over to the table to begin preparing the vouchers while the men shopped for what they needed.  Within 10 minutes, two of the men approached the table with their clothes in hand and I did my best to greet them with a smile on my face.  One of the men was an older gentleman, who I will refer to as James.  He appeared to be in his mid to late sixties.  The other gentleman, who I will refer to as Andrew, looked to be in his early to mid-thirties.  When I asked for their identification, James pulled out a large folder and began looking through some papers.  It was then that Andrew explained that James was his uncle and that he had just been released from prison that morning after serving a 40-YEAR SENTENCE.

I cannot even begin to explain to you what I felt at that very moment.  My disposition immediately changed from one of slight irritation to one of empathy and compassion.  I could not help but have enormous respect for this kind and humble man who had endured so much and essentially missed out on his entire adult life.  But there was no trace of bitterness or anger in James’ voice.  Only a smile on his face that he was free at last, and gratitude in his heart for the assistance we were providing him with.  I literally had to plead with him to go back and pick out more items when I realized he had not gotten all the items that are included in the voucher program.  I was determined to make sure James left the store with a full wardrobe as he owned only the clothes that were on his back.  Once we loaded him up, I shook James’ hand, wished him the best, and told him to come back and see me if he needed anything else.  At that, we parted ways and I took some time to reflect on what God had just done.

It didn’t take long to see what God was doing through this experience.  I quickly realized that I had lost my way and forgotten why God had placed me at the store in the first place.  This tends to be a pattern in my life.  In whatever situation I find myself in, I become obsessed with success, as the world defines it, and forget to invest time in the people that God has placed in my path.  I place agenda above relationship, and fall into the trap of placing more value on the temporal, rather than the eternal.  As a result, I begin trusting more in myself and my own ability to bring in the harvest, rather than Christ who has promised that he will move mountains for us if only we will only have enough faith.

When I entered the ministry, I thought those days were behind me.  Yet one year later, I was repeating the same tragic mistake again.  But thanks to my encounter with James, God gave me eyes to see and ears to hear how far I had drifted from my intended mission.  I remembered that running the store was never about unloading trucks, or baling recycled clothes, or processing donations, or even increasing sales.  It was about building God’s kingdom on earth by sharing the love of Christ with our struggling neighbors who are in need.   And I was grateful that God had awakened me from my spiritual blindness just in time to extend James a warm welcome and ensure that the first experience he would have following his release from prison would be filled with grace and compassion.  When James left, I was staggered by the thought of how this experience almost exactly paralleled the story of the Prodigal Son recorded in chapter fifteen of the Gospel of Luke.   It was as if James was the Prodigal Son who had come home after being in prison for forty years, and I had played the role of the Father who felt compassion for him and welcomed him home with open arms.

At that moment, I was overwhelmed by the sense of God’s presence and humbled at how he had just used me to encourage James and give him hope that he would find forgiveness and be able to start his life all over again.  I also finally understood why God was moving me out of the store and into a new role.  A role that He had been preparing me for over the past year, and as I look back, over my entire life.

The people we serve at LifePath are the people Jesus refers to as the “least of these” in chapter twenty-five of the Gospel of Matthew.  They are the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the homeless, and the prisoners.  They are typically ignored by the public at large, as I too had ignored them for many years.  If we are honest, we are not comfortable being around them and avoid them if at all possible.  We often judge them as being bad people who must have done some bad things to wind up in the situation they are in.  But Jesus refers to them as his brothers and sisters and calls his followers to serve them and walk alongside of them.  And that is what we do at LifePath.

But now, we also want to give them a voice.  We want to tell their stories.  We want to break down barriers and dispel misconceptions that they are in some way different from us.  We want to connect them with people and open doors for them to flourish and thrive in community.  But in order for us to accomplish this, we had to find someone who was willing to be their voice in the community.  Someone who would be willing to go, as the prophet Isaiah had responded to God’s call in Isaiah chapter six.  It was then that I heard the voice of the Lord saying to me, “Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?”  And all I could say was, “Here I am Lord.  Send me!”

Obedience is tough.  Most of the time I still want to follow my own will, and not God’s.  And it grieves me to think of the opportunities I missed for God to work through me because I would not say yes to Him.  But the good news is he never gives up on us.  He is the Hound of Heaven who relentlessly pursues us and presents us with new opportunities to say yes and trust Him with the outcome.  And when we do, He promises to throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it (Malachi 3:10).

And that is exactly what has happened in the past five months since I said yes to taking on my new role at LifePath.  The outpouring of support from the community has been simply overwhelming.  By and large, every single person or organization I have reached out to has enthusiastically agreed to partner with us on some level.  Many of these are relationships that I have built over many years through my community involvement and previous sales career.  Now I can look back in astonishment to see how God was going to use all of those connections that were made so long ago to help accomplish the mission that He had prepared for me from the beginning.

So as 2017 comes to a close, I would encourage you also to take some time and reflect back on how God was at work in your life this past year.  What has become routine in your life?  What changes did He want to make?  What new things did he want to teach you?  What perceptions did he want to change?  Where were you questioning God?  Where was he asking you to trust him with the outcome and say yes?

I pray this time of reflection will draw you closer to God as you consider how his will has been unfolding in your life this past year.

Happy New Year!