Monday, January 25, 2010

The Power of Love

We’ve known Cecilia for a while now. She comes to our neighborhood for crack, and she comes to our house for food and rest at the end of a binge – or sometimes just a brief respite somewhere in the middle. Our door is always open, so over the course of last semester we got to spend a decent amount of time with Cici. We would welcome her in, offer her some hot tea or a bite to eat, talk for a while, and then give her a ride wherever she needed to go. All this happened, of course, under the well-maintained pretense that she was in our neighborhood visiting a friend, or seeing so-and-so about such-and-such.

One day she asked us for a ride up to United to buy her some cigarettes. She said she would need just about five minutes to talk to a friend about something (panhandle some drug money). We drove her over there and Josh ran inside to buy the menthols. Throughout the evening, Cecilia had been acting a little strange. She seemed very conflicted. She kept hinting that she really wanted to tell us something, but then she would shy away from it.

Cecilia started to get out of the car, but then she stopped and looked back at us with this look that said, “Can I trust you?” There was not really anything that we could have said to help or hinder Cecilia in her internal battle, so we just waited and silently prayed.

“I want to tell you guys,” she said, “but I’m just afraid you’ll look at me differently.”

“Cecilia, we love you. No matter what. We love you.”

“I know you do, but I just don’t know…” she said. She looked at us, then out the window, then back at us.

“Well, we will be happy to wait here for you, Cecilia, but we would really love to talk to you about whatever is on your mind – if you want to.”

“I do want to, Wes, but it’s just hard.”

Silence. Then release.

“You probably already know this, but…”

For the next thirty minutes, Cecilia talked to us about her addiction, about her husband Carl and his addiction, and about how much she really wanted to be free. We just listened and tried to send as much love in her direction as possible. The Spirit of the LORD was with us that night, quieting our souls and preparing us for the relationship He was ready to give us as a gift.

There have been plenty of other times hanging out with Cecilia when I have felt awkward, confused, angry, disappointed, or often impatient; but on this particular evening, God was working things together for good, and I was a just an observer of His redemption. I felt a peace, a confidence in Him, and an overwhelming joy at His goodness. My heart was already broken for Cecilia; months of relationship with her, almost exclusively during her binges, had accomplished that. That night, God gave me hope in the fact that, while we are called to love and to devote all our mental, spiritual, entrepreneurial, and all other resources to that basic and high calling, redemption (in a holistic sense) is ultimately His job in which He graciously allows us to participate.

We never ended up waiting around for Cici to panhandle. Instead she asked us to drive her home so she could introduce us to Carl, one of the meekest and most pure-in-heart men I have ever met.

We are fast friends with Cici and Carl now. We have been over to their place for dinner a few times, and they have been to our place. Carl has all of our phone numbers so that he can call us any time he is tempted to smoke crack. Some old charges caught up with Cici, and she is in jail awaiting trial for parole violations. With God’s grace, she will be admitted to a 9-month prison rehab program, and hopefully Carl will be able to simultaneously get into an in-house recovery program on the outside. Carl has been clean for three weeks now.

Monday, January 18, 2010

A New Season


Well, we're back from our travels afar. Wes spent some time with his parents; Aaron and Ben visited the Upton's in Panama; and I was graciously hosted for a couple weeks by my parents in Detroit. I can tell you it's good to be back though. We're looking to dig deeper over the coming semester, while we still have time before summer activities.

Last weekend we took a retreat as a community. We wanted to take a look at what God had done and spend some time learning to do a better job praying together. More importantly we attempted to press into the things that have emerged to shape this community of faith. It was good. A lot of fruit came from our time set apart - maybe more fruit than we even know yet. Now its time to press forward and pursue the opportunities that the Lord has provided for us in the last couple months. For this reason please keep us in your prayers. Pray for boldness. Pray for unconditional love to cover the house and all who enter here. Most of all, pray for the bondage of drugs to be broken from our hood. Now is the time. Its a new season, and there is no better example of a change in the winds than the all too important life that this day commemorates. This afternoon we met at the house with some of the kids and made signs for the annual Martin Luther King march.

Heading Out.

Conner and Allenia.


There was a really good turn out, and a good number of the folks from our neighborhood were there. The kids made some really good signs too. It was an incredible day! And this might not be a very big deal for some, but I just want to boast in the love of our kids for a moment.

Today Wes was explaining to six year old Bobby that if he couldn't share crackers with Allenia then he couldn't have any at all. We share everything in our house. It's either all of ours, or no one's. Bobby wanted his own pack of crackers, but when Allenia opened the crackers she took one and said: "Here Bobby, you can have some." to which I said "Thank you Allenia." "You're welcome," she said.

When love sprouts up in the heart and grows roots in situations like this, it is capable of moving mountains. Or, at least thats what I think. In honor of our brother Martin and his unwillingness to sacrifice the message of the gospel in the face of violent opposition, I will leave you with my favorite quote.

Shadow cannot drive out shadow. Only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate. Only Love can do that.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

That dream is still coming true.

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