Kristen Wood's Blog
Journey / 03.02.09, 04:21 PM
I can’t say that I have always had a heart for the “least advantaged”; at least not to the same degree in which I do currently. Although I grew up always feeling sympathy for this group and participated in one day service projects to assist, my feelings and actions never went past this stage. I held the view that it was their own doing, and as a result, their own problem to deal with. It wasn’t until an urban outreach mission trip to DC and then an internship with a non-profit in Miami, that my attitude began to change. My time in DC was the first critical step of my transformed view as I spent 24 hours participating in a Poverty Simulation, realizing the terrible treatment of the poor, specifically the homeless. In Miami, I was challenged by one man at the shelter at the very beginning of my time there as he asked, “Why you are here and what are you learning?” After realizing that I honestly didn’t know, I spent the summer exploring this question through studying what God says about it in His word and working through the book Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor by Robert Lupton.
A well known verse, Matthew 25:40 states “And He will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers, you did unto me.” Jesus is in disguise in everyone. As they are all God’s creation, every individual, deserves to be treated the best that can be offered. 1 John 16-17 explains God’s love as not living for ourselves, but living sacrificially for others. I discovered in this the true meaning of love, a love that I center my actions upon. The book also helped me explore this theme in the difference between being a servant and being a friend. When concentrating on serving, one can easily fall into the trap of trying to fix or consider themselves to be better. In this ministry, I am determined to follow the latter part of the quote; “Servants believe one will become better because they know better, friends believe ‘we’ will be better because we share in each other’s life.”
In just the first half of my Mission Year experience, my beliefs have been even more solidified and I have been challenged every single day in what it means and looks like to love the disadvantaged in my neighborhood. I have found that it’s though my faith in God and knowing His unending love for everyone that I am able to make it through each day as I witness so much hurt and injustice in my neighborhood. But I am confident in the mission in which God has called us all, to love and serve the least of these. I am determined to find ways to do just that, no matter where or what I am doing in the future.
1 Comments
Leave a Comment...
Read more of Kristen Wood's Blogs.
