The question came to me “Are we making a difference?” as my wife and I were driving to Costco to do some shopping for our home. We are at Costco at least once a week to shop for the food, juice and water we share without neighbors on Sunday morning at the park.
I thought about the question for a brief moment and then responded: “We do not make the difference: God does.” Where the answer is true, and I knew it to be true at the time I spoke it, I was unsettled that I could not support the statement with more than my ‘child-like’ faith in Christ. I call it a ‘child-like’ faith, because more times than not I believe what I am told by those who are considered wise and educated in all things God. After all, they have degrees and I barely passed my GED.
As I began to research in the bible study software “Logos”, I was given the first step in finding the beginning of an answer: Philippians 2:13. I was going to look to James 2:14-26, and that is a good portion of the answer it’s but not where the answer begins.
As a man who strives to be as linear as possible in word and deed, a man who believes and pursues the “black and white” answer model, I have to admit I struggle with being honest with myself because of my own pride. It is when I lose sight of Christ that I begin to think that “I” am making a difference on Sunday mornings. In the short term, the span of a few hours, I want to believe that I am making a small difference to help a person in need with food or warmth from clothing. Think about the timeline for human history over the last thousands or millions of years, depending on what you believe: am I really making a difference with a muffin or pair of socks? Wow, did I really try to pull the whole ‘timeline of human history’ angle for an answer, you’re right: too cranial. Let’s look at the numbers, because numbers do not lie.
Spending time in the park each Sunday morning, we’ll see an average of 80 – 85 people on any given Sunday over the span of a month. Some weekends, the number is as low as 60 and others the head count is over 100. Compared to the most recent numbers I can find that give any indication to the number of homeless in Tucson are from 2010 from the Tucson Pima Collaboration to end Homelessness website, my contribution is minimal at best.
During the 2010 calendar year, 7,812 unduplicated individuals utilized homeless services at some point during the 12-month period. Of these, 79% were adults and 21% were children under age 18. Those accessing services during calendar year 2010 were 64% male and 36% female. The numbers reflect only individuals who utilized homeless services, which does not include the undocumented men and woman who will not go near a shelter or food bank. Just using the numbers of individuals who utilize homeless services, I am reaching barely 1% of the homeless population: Am I making a difference? No.
But that is not the answer I am looking for either. I know in my heart that it is not I who is making the difference, but He who is at work in me. I found Philippians 2:12-18 speaking to the beginning of the answer in my heart:
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”
If it is God who works in me, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, then it doesn’t matter what I do and only that I respond to His call to action with joy in my heart. I do work out my salvation with fear and trembling on a daily basis, some days I have more fear and trembling than others.
With the foundation of my efforts being God, it now appears He is making the difference as He sees fit…in His perfect timing. This however does not relieve me from doing what I am called to do in regard to Sunday mornings: provide food and clothing to the disenfranchised of Tucson.
Here is where I look to James 2:14-26:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
I am called to exercise my faith at the park on Sunday mornings and at the Gospel Rescue Mission Men’s Center one evening a month. Trust me when I say that I have no preconceived notion that my friends and neighbors I share time with at those events are looking to me for a life changing experience. I’m just a guy handing out a muffin, reading some scripture and being as transparent as I possibly can about who I am.
In Christ,
Wayne
Posted on December 1, 2011
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