Always Show Humanity

"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more to blessed to give than to receive.'" ACTS 19:32. When I come home for the Holiday's, my mom has me go with her to Loaves and Fishes to feed the hungry. Loaves and Fishes is a wonderful place in downtown Sacramento. It runs a school for homeless children, Mustard Seed, and it provides food and resources for the needy. My mom goes with our church every other Friday. As a child I remember my mom having me donate toys and books to the kids at the school. My mom would always say she can see the 'face of God' in their faces. Revisiting this place as an adult, I saw it too. When you go to this place, it is in the middle of a bunch of warehouses, most of them abandon. Many of the homeless live either in the abandon buildings, along the railroad tracks or the park nearby. Two years ago, my job in the food line was to scoop ice cream. The problem with the ice cream this particular day, was it didn't have time thaw enough to scoop. So the line was getting backed up as I struggled to get the ice cream scoop to work. Surprisingly, it was the workers that were annoyed with me and not the homeless. In fact the homeless were encouraging. Here they were, dirty, alone and waiting for their one meal of the day, telling me I was doing a great job scooping the ice cream and to take my time and not listen to the other people who were being quite sassy with me to hurry up. I also heard my mom engage in genuine conversations with them about music, or books as they passed through the line. I saw more humanity in them, then I see just walking around on a day to day basis. It is our duty as Christians to not forget the forgotten. But not only that, to treat them with respect. In order for someone to go homeless, a string of terrible events have had to happen. Many of us come from such loving families and/or situations where our struggle would hopefully never bring us to the streets. But a lot of us don't have that option. The homeless are not just a faction that we either donate a check too, or maybe half-heartledly serve a dinner too once a year. When you are in the process of giving back, give them a smile too. Try hear what they have to say. You never know what one encouraging word can do to someone's spirit. And always show humanity.

Faith

By far, the most random thing that happened to me this past year was when I met a Medium. She told me, "I've never said this to anyone before, but you're whole being is faith, and it's beautiful." I believe in faith more than I believe in an organized religion. I feel nervous even admitting that. I have absolutely nothing against organized religion, in fact I'm fascinated by it. I love learning about everyone's beliefs systems. And the more I learn about Christianity - as a whole - the more I realize we all believe in the same thing, God is our Father, and he is an ever loving and forgiving Lord. Faith is such an interesting word. There's obviously a ton of definitions for it, but the most striking one I've read is "belief that is not based on proof". Now, as Christians we believe in God and we believe in the Bible. I was a history major in college, so I've studied the historicity of Jesus. I can go into all this at another time, but my point is, we have proof that there was a man named Jesus who lived among us and through his actions, made enough people believe, and preach to the point that seriously changed the world. Whether you believe or not, that's something we all can agree happened. What's tough is - what about now? What about today? Some people say they have seen God through dreams or He has appeared to them in some way. Some say when they pray they hear him. I can make no claims like that that for me. I have never seen or heard him. But I believe in Him. I have faith. Growing up my mom always encouraged me to live by my faith. We acted in our faith, by feeding the homeless, visiting convalescent homes, and giving our time, since financially we didn't have a lot. Whenever we go somewhere, like the ocean, or up to Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada's my mom would look out the window and say "this is where I see God". Being in nature reassures my mom in her faith...even though God is not physically standing their welcoming us on our trip. For me, I see God in sunsets. I would probably see Him in sunrises but I don't get up that early. (That is a new goal of mine.) The way the sky changes and the colors that appear make me believe. I know there are scientific reason's behind it, but it is my faith that speaks to me in these moments. It's a calming feeling that no matter what is going on in my life, He is there. My favorite quote from the Bible is Ephesians 3:20. I wrote it down and have it on my refrigerator so I see it every day. "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his might power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Always and forever have faith.