Monday, August 30, 2010

…for just one second… (a reflection of CSM Washington, D.C.)

We stumbled upon this great blog post from a leader of Mt. Zion Church's group that served with us in Washington DC. Thanks for sharing, Ryan!

"Give me your arms for the broken hearted,
The ones that are far beyond my reach?
Give me your heart for the one’s forgotten,
Give me your eyes so i can see,
Yeah yeah yeah yeah…”
Sometimes in our lives we are called to do something truly bigger than ourselves, and it is in those moments that we are foolish to not take them. This is something that I told myself on the plane ride back from DC as I finished my pre-trip orientation for CSM DC this July for Mount Zion.

Thirty-three students and adults, 33 people with different personalities, different talents, different gifts, maybe even different color skin, but one thing was common between us: we have some good news for so many… we got Jesus!

So on July 18, 2010 around 5:00 am; we set out on an adventure, but more so a mission. It’s a mission none of us expected, but we all knew it was going to be one amazing week. After 12 hours crammed in three 15 passenger vans we arrive: tired, hungry, restless, but eager to start the mission God had laid out for us.

I don’t have the time or the memory to tell you all that happened this one week between July 18 and the 24th. What I can tell you is that we as a group decided to adopt the song above not just as our favorite tune, but a clarion call for something truly supernatural. We were going to share the love of Jesus Christ throughout Washington, D.C., even if it seemed like “just one second.”

Truly interesting was that we all would split up into three groups throughout the week, hardly seeing each other except a day or so, and every night. We would all come back having different experiences serving different people in different ways.

Some would work at a homeless shelter serving food to those in want, some would do yard work for elderly people who can’t do it on their own, some would move furniture for those who are coming out of homelessness and don’t have much to start over again, some would make and pack and distribute food for low income families and those who have life-long illnesses, some would go into the inner city– the projects of DC and set up a “backyard Bible club/VBS” and just pour out the love of Christ on those who don’t experience it at home and who need to hear the good news, some would go to Boys and Girls Club and work with difficult children who seem to have no hope of changing but change would and did shortly come…

Some of us did so much to help out… even if the “footprint” of our impact was small, it was what was needed, and people needed us that week. Not because we are something great but because we are carrying something great inside of us: the Holy Spirit of God!

Have you ever experienced homelessness? Do you know what it is like? Do you care? Well for “just one second” we all felt it to an extent. Not to the extent of those who are truly homeless, but to the extent that it woke us up and changed us, humbled us and made us grateful for His blessings. Just to sit down and fellowship and commune with those who many feel are “second-class” or “in the way” or even “trash,” is truly enlightening. Many are brilliant, many had successful lives, they are all like you and me. But a mistake here, a fall out there, a lost job somewhere, left them in this condition… and we are called as believers in the resurrected Lord to help them out and to provide for their needs… so are we? I mean, are we really?

Our leaders, our guides, were amazing individuals who were set apart for such a time to show us what is going on in this place, and how we can do something about it. For every need there should be every answer. For every hurt there should be every healing. Are we truly being the “hands and feet” of Christ, or are we just living?

Lives were changed for sure, and I would like to believe we made a difference. We might never know. We might have to go on faithfully knowing that we planted the seed, but someone will water and it will grow! But more than us seeing other lives changed, our lives were changed all the more.

So I praise my Savior and Lord that He “gave me His eyes for just one second…” because that “one second” was truly a “second” that never left me the same…

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