The HPD and Me

A quick note to update you on a pressing matter....

One unavoidable thing about in working in the inner-city is interaction with police. Sometimes your interactions are positive and sometimes they are negative. Unfortunately two of my friends and I were the subject of some of the negative kind of interaction lately. One day my teammate David and I were waiting for the bus home after work, as we always do, when one of our co-workers in the after-school program pulled up to offer us a ride. We stood on the corner for a few minutes talking to our friend while he was in his car. As we stood there talking to him a policeman drove by (which is not an odd site as they constantly peruse the streets of the third-ward) my friend enacted his hazard lights and the policeman passed without trouble. We got into the car with our friend and were on our way home when we were abruptly pulled over. Immediately the police were at the windows of the car requesting that we step out of the vehicle with our hands visible. Upon stepping out of the car I was instantly hand-cuffed, my friend (who was driving) was instantly hand-cuffed and put in the back of the cruiser (trying not to be accusatory but of the three of us he was the only one who was not white and I therefore believe he was racially profiled) David was also cuffed and the police began their search in what they believed to be a narcotics bust. After some rather forceful searching of both the car and ourselves, and a few off collar inquiries as to why two white guys were in that particular part of the neighborhood and why we got into the car with “him” (the police continually referred to our friend with an air of distaste) we were free to go along with our friend, who continued to give us a ride home, with a pitiful apology that showed me that they (the police) were more sorry that they didn’t find any drugs. As I said sometimes interaction with the police cannot be avoided and that is just part of inner-city ministry. Luckily we were not detained (much to the chagrin of the police I’m sure) mainly because we had done nothing illegal and I am still free to spread love to the wonderful people God has placed in my path.

This experience has shown me many things...not all positive...but one thing that struck me was something David said. David was very upset (as he well should be) after this ordeal and David made the comment that he has more respect and awe for Jesus. Because after his ( Jesus') ordeal he was able to love the guards who had beat him and hung him to die, and David now understood how that would be difficult after David experienced a little bit from the "criminal" standpoint.

The Real Guts and Gory!!

So my biggest mistake in life is, quite easily, the fact that I have convinced myself at different times that being a Christian is easy.

I am not talking about "Christian" in the sense that I grew up in America, or that I went to church, or that I prayed a prayer one night, and again another night because I wasn't sure that I had done it right the first time.

What I am talking about is a lifestyle, not a "religion".

I am talking about something that few have ever been able to grasp half the full concept of ( and I am nowhere even close to grasping one-one hundredth of it).

I am talking about looking at others no matter how much evil they have done to you, and being able to love them.( And not just say you love them but be willing to lay your life down for them if you have to.)

The lifestyle I am referring to involves taking the hard, laborious, difficult, near-impossible, and self-depreciating road to situations that you could just not give a shit about.

I am talking about looking at the Gospels and doing the very things that Jesus did and not cutting corners; not doing it except when it makes you uncomfortable but rather doing it even more when you are uncomfortable.

Somewhere along the way I got it in my head that being a Christian meant that I would have a good job, great friends, a cute wife, nice kids, a white picket fence, and lots of suits and ties...however NONE of that has ANYTHING to do with following Jesus' example.

In fact those things are the exact opposite of what it means to drop everything and follow Jesus. In scripture Jesus sends out his disciples without a pack, without sandals, without a staff(see Luke 10)...he basically sends them out naked!!! Because, like throughout all of the history of man, God had to do something where no one could say that man had control. But rather that there would be no doubt that To God Alone Be The Glory!

When God calls out Gideon(see Judges 6-7) he cuts his numbers drastically and yet he delivers them into victory, they stood in the face of defeat and death but he brought them through. God watched as the apostle Paul was stoned outside of town, then watched as Paul got up, with his body broken and bleeding, and went right back into the very town that had just tried to kill him.(see Acts 14:19-20)

God did not create us to live comfortable and easy lives...he created us to need him. God made man with a hole in him ( and not the hypothetical hole that Jesus builds a cabin in to spend summers and Christmas with us) but a hole that would bring man to this point in his life where he is at the end of rope where he has nowhere to look but to God.

Why would a loving God do this??? Why would a God who says he will never leave us or forsake us do that??

Because...

God created us incomplete so that he could take us up in his hands and he could complete us! God made us with a future in mind, not a prosperous future, a future that would involve tears, yelling, and a feeling of emptiness so that he could look us in the eyes and help us realize that he has been there the whole time(remember that whole never leave you part?) and that He is ready and willing to fill that void and really he already has. (see Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, I Kings 8:57, I Chronicles 28:20, Psalm 37:28, Psalm 94:14, Hebrews 13:5 and so many more.)

SO....anyway to the point I am making with this...

There are many options out there and as the Proverbs tell us "In his heart every man chooses a path and the Lord determines his steps"(see Proverbs 16:9) , and God is with us on this journey because it is his journey not ours anyway.

All this to say, Take a look at your life. Find something that is comfortable, and drop it. Take it out of your life, and replace it with God. Many of us look at this past Lenten season as a time to do this ( and succeed in not drinking soda or coffee for about two weeks). But what I am talking about is not a piece of your life I am talking about a piece of your lifestyle. Maybe it is driving ( if you drive to somewhere that is only a mile away simply because it is easier.) or maybe it is passing up the homeless man on the street, or maybe it is ignoring your roommate because they annoy you.

I encourage you to look at what makes your life easier and instead of it making your life easier try to make it where it makes another persons life easier. I am pretty darn sure that is what Jesus meant for us to do, at least that is what I have begun to perceive...