A Hard Truth

Here is a hard truth about Christianity that is brought, rather brutally, into focus while working with ASP:

God is the ultimate judge.

People call the center all the time to ask for assistance on their home. One of the most common things people say to me is, "Now honey, I'm a good, Christian man..." When I hear this, and I often do, I wonder if people believe that we are more inclined to help them because they have lived their lives right. And I think most people do. Volunteers struggle with the same issue, because although we are Christians, we are still all human and believe, inherently, in justice. We long to see that those who have worked hard, made good choices, accepted Christ, or whatever our internal measure of "goodness" might be, are the ones who are the first to receive assistance. But really, is it our place to judge that? Don't the drug dealers and the drunks and the people who don't know God need our help that much more? Those who have wandered are the ones who need to witness God's love the most. And here lies the greatest challenge of working for a ministry that abides by an ideal that "we accept people right where they are, just the way they are"-- you really have to get your hands dirty and do it. It's easy to accept the old lady who makes you cookies for fixing her floor or the young couple who thanks you over and over for their new roof. But being a Christian is not always meant to be easy. God's grace is for everyone, and so being a Christian means accepting that homeowner who is having a bad day, or who lives a messy life and doesn't know how or won't clean the floor you just installed. But that's accepting people where they are, and sometimes it sucks.

Last summer my mom and I were group leaders for ASP together and found ourselves in a home situation that was awfully uncomfortable and made us very uneasy. For the sake of sensitivity, I'll not go into details, but the first few days of our work that week felt very much like we were on a "Hoarders" documentary. It took awhile to step back and decide if we were unsettled by simply being so far outside of our comfort zone, or by a gut-intuition that it was an unsafe working environment. We decided to stay with the project and had an amazing week building a great relationship with our family and with our group. A similar situation is occurring with a group leader this week and I have asked him to consider the same question that I was faced with one year ago this week. I certainly empathize with his frustrations but am struggling to meet him on a level that respects him, the family, and ASP's mission. I don't yet know what his decision will be, but either way it's hard to watch someone carry the weight of such a heavy situation.

In the end, all we are called to do is love one another. Sounds simple enough, but it definitely is not.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:7-8