Burning Furnace of Charity

Our little community (plus our friend Claudia) hit the road this Easter! We picked up Jo from the airport on Friday and drove to see my parents in Houston. Jo had just returned from 2 weeks in language school in Antigua, Guatemala. It's a miracle - she's totally fluent! Okay, not quite fluent (neither am I!), but definitely on the road! We're glad she's back.

It was great to see my parents, though very briefly. I loved sitting around the table listening to Dad talk about how he drove around their suburb "looking for homeless people." He has been reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne lately, and is determined to be a different kind of church where he lives. (The truth is, my dad has always been a bit of a revolutionary sort of guy.) He and Mom are leading a small group now, and trying to live out together what it really means to follow Jesus. I'm inspired and encouraged by my parents who, in their 60's, refuse to allow life to just settle down and happen to them- they are squeezing every ounce of life and love out of what they've been given. I think they become my heroes again and again every day, simply because of the way they continue to love me and everyone else around them.

Speaking of The Irresistible Revolution....from Houston we drove to San Antonio to hear Shane Claiborne speak on Saturday night. Hearing him share in person the journey of community and loving Jesus was great. In fact, it was so great that we (& our friends Roland & Carolyn), like a bunch of groupies, followed him to Austin on Sunday night! We very sheepishly showed our faces for night #2, but were grateful for another opportunity to listen to him share his stories. On night #2, Shane asked everyone to consider leaving their shoes at the communion stations to be given to a homeless shelter not far away. It was beautiful to come to an altar, receive the body and blood of Jesus, then place your shoes on the pile already there. In the same way that communion reminds us of how we put together the broken body of Jesus, the shoes reminded me that we need each other. Sometimes I have, sometimes you have, but as Christ's Body, there should be no lack among us.



I felt my life being destroyed by the Gospel, yet again. I kind of thought the "damage" had been done with my big move to Mexico. Apparently, that was only the beginning. I wrestle with lots of questions here - what does it really look like to love and serve my friends in BT? What does it look like to let them be my friend? Is what I'm doing enough? And not "enough" in the sense of checking off some religious to-do list, but enough in that, if I call Jesus my friend, am I doing enough to wipe away His tears? To meet Him in His most "distressing disguises," as Mother Teresa put it? Dorothy Day said, "If you have two coats, you've stolen one." Have I stolen from the poor? from my friends? from Jesus? Not sure anyone can answer these questions for us, as it tends to be in the heart between Jesus and us.

I went to see Lucia and Blanca yesterday, only to find that Lucia had not been at the shelter since Sunday. On Easter, she took herself right back to Boys Town, leaving everything behind. I found her, drunk and a bit high, behind Nora's place. She was talking to a girl named Maria, who was clearly in need of a fix. My heart sank and shattered as Lucia, through tears, shared with me why she came back. She and Blanca had faced some problems in their friendship, and I'm not sure of the whole story, to be honest with you. I just cried with her and told her I loved her, but that I wanted to see her in a different place. I felt so angry when I left - angry at Lucia for going back, angry at Blanca for stirring up trouble, angry at the enemy for his stupid schemes, angry at God for not doing something more to stop it all. Thanks to Jo, I was reminded of the verse in Romans 12 that says, "...if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. Love from the center of who you are..." I've always told people that I'm not here to love people in BT so they'll change - I'm just here to love the ones Jesus loves; the changing part is up to Him. That becomes more difficult to accept when people become your friends instead of your ministry. Pray for Lucia today, that God will carve out a place for her (or even that our landlord would allow us to take her in).