Friday, November 15, 2013

A Sunday Morning with a Mercy Mom


            Many are aware that this past weekend our church did something unusual.  Instead of worshiping in our regular way, we “gave it away”.  Approximately six hundred people went out on Saturday and Sunday to serve the community in mission instead of gathering in typical fashion in our sanctuary.

            One of the most powerful aspects of this healthy disruption to our routine is that we can experience the harsh reality in which so many around us are living.  At the same time, we are reminded of that transforming power of love.

            My family and I had the privilege of working at a local ministry called “Mercy Moms”.  This is a residential home that houses several mothers who have been living on the fringe of life.  Some are recovering from substance abuse, others have different struggles.  But they all have babies.  The problem is that they have never learned how to be moms.  So this ministry houses them and their children and teaches them the basics of parenting, finances, and other general life lessons.

            It is led by a young woman named Ashley.  I was building some shelves for the moms when Ashley told me her story.  It is a story which she yearns to tell and has told many times.  At sixteen she was pregnant and had an abortion.  She entered into a downward spiral that resulted in a drug addiction and a second pregnancy at age 23.  She kept this baby but didn’t know how to be a mom.  She told me that she had simply decided that this was her destiny.  She figured she was just a drug addict and that she would never be anything else. 

            But then, someone from a local congregation took her in.  The family loved her and accepted her and as a result, she accepted Christ. They mentored her and provided life lessons that she had missed.  Her life is so different now.  She is healthy, strong, and speaks with such passion and love.  And now, she does the same thing for other mothers who need that love, hope, and Savior. 

            Ashley finished the story and I was finishing the shelves.  But then, several young women walked in, returning from a morning of worship at their church.  It was clear that their faith was as young as the babies in their arms. 

            I can’t say much for my carpentry.  The shelves were adequate, but not beautiful.  But that picture on a Sunday morning, of those women carrying those babies, returning from church, well, it just doesn’t get much better than that.  I am holding on to that one.    

            Sometimes we church folk forget how powerful our own spiritual ammunition really is.  When love starved people meet the real thing, and Jesus is the real thing, they soak it up.  That means that when we love people in tangible ways in the footsteps of Jesus, we have the privilege of being a part of that thing that really works, that really changes people.

            This weekend, as a veteran church person, I had the privilege of stepping out of the routine and being reminded of why we do what we do.  Jesus really loves people, and Jesus really can change people.  When we hook into this same love and this same Jesus, we get to witness this wonder time and time again.  Thanks be to God! We are going to speak some more about this in worship this weekend.  See you there!

Pastor Pete

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