“Bringer of Fire”
I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stresss I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No I tell you, but rather division!” Luke 12:49-51
Last Saturday night over and over again people would say how different I was. One gentleman from First Congregational commented how challenging my sermons were, how people were often disturbed. I do disturb people–when I preach that Christ is in homeless people, and that there is no difference between those housed and not housed, accept money, and we should treat each other equally. I make people uncomfortable with that message. I make pastor’s uncomfortable when they see the money I live on compared to their 90,000 plus, and so on. For some time it bothered me, but now it is my life, and it is what I am called to do–to live out my life as I do–challenging those who are comfortable. I have a group from the MCC with me on Tuesdays and Saturdays and they are puzzled by the way I work–I work on the same level, simply, in the moment. I understand how Jesus felt, the stress, but I am coming to accept it as my calling.
Goodness is a process of becoming, not of being. What we do over and over again is what we become in the end.
- Joan Chittister,
Benedictine nun, author, and lecturer.
I ran across this quote and it resonates with me. I often look back on my life, with regret, and see my failures, the pain I have caused others, but the good Sister reminds me that goodness is a process of becoming–and that what we do each day is what we become in the end. And so I seek to serve God through the people I care for and serve, and hopefully I will end in goodness.
Today has been an excellent day. I went to the foodbank, and then to the Haight. The Haight was filled with people, and it was fun. I saw the young man I took to the hospital the other night and he was grateful. I came back to Polk and ran into a twenty year old hooked on dope, planning to go home to Ohio, and I bought him dinner and we talked. he cried a lot, but seemed less stressed when he left. A young man came up to me and handed me a hundred dollars thanking me for all I did for him years ago, which helped him get his life together. I frankly do not remember him, his face, but again it is in the moment that I work, and in this case I found out what the future has brought to him. A very touching moment. Put meal together, and outreached more. I am going to bed soon, have a long day tomorrow. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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