Glen.
Thursday was another day of organizing eased by “would you rather” jokes, gatorades and FastBreak candy bars. As a group, we put random clothes on random hangers in random places into their respected places. Outside of the main room where program members came to retrieve their clothes, there was an even larger room with a wooden shelf that stretched to the ceiling divided into open box crates with stray clothing. Closet rods lined the other side of the room in which boxes upon boxes of random clothing were stacked not-so-neatly underneath.
The neat organizers of the group took charge and the folding and storing began. Thankfully, I finally brought my camera to the mission because there were some funny moments where the guys’ funny bones got the better of them. Between tacky ties and jumpsuits, the group certainly had their breaks and distractions.
Since it was our last day, we finally got to hear the warehouse manager’s story. His name is Thomas and he was an inspiration to us all. Thomas had been through the program himself and had turned his life around. The most memorable thing to me beyond his kind heart and his determination and strong will, was his statement about how people say it’s hard being a Christian. His response to that? “It’s not hard being a Christian, it’s easy to be a Christian.” Though that isn’t the usual statment I hear, I completely agree. Some people talk about how hard it is to follow Christianity and all the struggles. But, the thing is, is we have the greatest gift; we have grace, mercy, love and salvation. How could that be hard? Sure, you’ll have trials, you’ll have opposition, but Jesus had the greatest number of trials and opposition…He died for US. Now, you are called to love. Why do we make it so difficult? Is it really that hard to just love people? If everyone just honestly loved people, every rule and part of Christianity would just fall into place….
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After Thomas’ story and a group photo, we packed up to head to our next activity. We all headed down to the riverfront where we would begin an “Ask the Lord” activity….which happened to be a breaking and turning point for me.
We split in groups and asked for God to tell us where He wanted us to go. Sparing some details that make sense probably only to the group I was in, we found ourselves led to walk downtown on Broadway and look for a couple of images God had given us. Then, we stumbled upon Glen.
Glen was sitting outside a sovenir store in a wheelchair where countless people stopped by. He was an elderly man who lost one of his legs due to a staph infection; I’ve never seen someone so joyful…and that broke my heart.
Earlier that morning, we sung a song with the lyrics: “Break my heart for what breaks yours.”
God had put Glen in my path and my heart was broken. I don’t know exactly what it was, or why Glen was the final step in breaking my heart into tiny pieces, but he was, and I’m so thankful. He was joyous, and I loved talking with him. Laura bought him some coffee, and we chatted for a little longer, which made it harder to leave. I wish we could have done more, and I hope he enjoyed talking with us, because I loved talking with him. It pains me to no end knowing that he is out there somewhere being passed on the street. He suffers from leg pain, and I hate knowing he’s alone. I just pray that God places people in his path to love on Glen, to show Glen he is loved by God. I also pray that people cross paths with Glen because I think he has something to teach all of us, and that’s simple joy in life.
Check out the photos for that day here!
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