Is Everything Ok? No. It Isn't.

Wow! That is about all I can say right now.

Earlier tonight I went "walking the neighborhood" as our college students at Highland call it. Basically, early every Sunday evening about 50 of the most sold out, courageous, and loving students take to the streets that surround Highland Church with one mission: To share the love of Jesus. They've been doing this for about 5 years now and tonight was my first time joining them. I can't give you all the details and I can't quite put into words how I experienced so much pain and so much pleasure and so much purpose in one short 1/2 mile walk. I will share this one encounter with you for now:

The third house we (myself and a short, spunky, and spirit filled sophomore English major from ACU) came to my partner (who did 90% of the talking for the two of us- if you can believe that!) went and knocked on the door or an extremely dilapidated dwelling. A lady opened the door and came and stood on the porch with us. My partner didn't know her name but simply said the same thing she has said every Sunday for over eight months now, "how is everything this week? Is everything OK?"

I sensed the Spirit sweep down and onto this porch...

"No. It isn't." was her reply.

Her lip began to quiver, her eyes became enveloped in tears and her hand covered her mouth as if to keep herself from expressing any more pain with words. But she couldn't keep it inside.

"My old man left me. He took everything. He left me here with all these babies to raise. He just took off. He even took my car. I have to walk 5 miles each way to work at Taco Bell thanks to him. I have nothing!"

My walking partner took a step forward and opened her arms as if to say, "it's safe in here." That lady lunged forward and let her hold her for what seemed to be an hour but was a matter of mere minutes.

I'm not going to go into detail about what happened after that or how we handled it.

This isn't about us. This isn't about Highland. It is about Jesus restoring his people.

Bottom line for me today was this: There are people living around us all (within walking distance ... Say 5 miles?) who are hurting. They are wholly hurting! And we (present blogger not excluded) who are "holy" should be about the business of healing and helping the hurting.

But to do that we will have to get off of our comfortable cans. We must step out of our safe sanctuaries. We must quit "passing by on the other side of the road" in our cushy cars and pull over every now and then. Or just now! And then we must walk. We must walk up to the porches of the pain-filled people and knock on the doors of the hearts of the hurting and ask if everything is ok. And when they finally admit, "No. It isn't." - We must open our arms wide and declare, "it's safe in here!"

Wow!