For the next several weeks, I will be utilizing the chapters of a book that got published by Youth For Christ USA several years ago. It chronicles a bit of our journey in this incredible and wonderful journey…
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Matthew 25:34-36
What happens when the space between our comfortable lives and the real world disappears? When God calls us out of safety and into the realm of faith, where we can witness and experience His profound touch of grace?
In April of 2005, God moved me out of the safety of a predictable life. He cared enough about the condition of my soul to awaken, extend and challenge it.
God loved me enough to break my heart.
Mary and I had the appropriate pictures on our refrigerator. We had our monthly sponsorship on auto-pay. We were engaged, but from a safe distance.
Then, with a new title, a new address and a new non-profit gig, God pulled back the curtain.
God didn’t want space on our refrigerator. He wanted us to ache for lost kids.
Not refrigerator kids, but neighborhood kids.
Kids just down the street.
Kids that walked to our local high school in a fog of confusion, loneliness and self-destruction. Kids that filed into a local detention center in orange jumpsuits. God wanted us to care about these kids.
To give life to their stories. To offer them new life.
Caring for these kids connected us deeply to the heart of God and irrevocably to the visionary leaders that form the movement of Youth For Christ. In the process, we learned…
When safety gives way to courage and the Gospel of Jesus becomes our only weapon, everything changes.
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