Would You Wash Jesus' Feet? Lesson #2 from the Homeless

Jeff Snow is a man's man.  

The service manager at Goodyear Tire and Auto, Jeff's not afraid to get his hands dirty.  He was quick to engage me in conversation that night at the park.  I got the sense that he enjoyed being in control of a situation and getting things done. I was surprised to find that he was the man I was supposed to talk to that night -- the man who washed homeless men's feet.

For two years, he told me, he and his team of foot washers had set up their station each week at a local park where homeless men gathered for a free meal and a kind word.  Jeff described what would happen next.

"The men knew that we had a new, clean pair of socks for them, but that they couldn't get the socks unless we washed their feet.  For some of them, they hadn't been able to wash their feet in a week.  On winter nights we'd make sure we had lots of warm water."

"While one of us washed their feet,"  Jeff continued, "someone else would be praying for them.  There's something about having their feet in the water that brings about a quiet time with God. It is a very spiritual experience," he said.

Snow's ministry was not all one-sided. 

"One day," he related, "I reached down to pray for a man, and he began praying for me."  Foot washing, he says, "is a humbling experience, both for you and the person washing your feet.  It humbled me to realize that I could go home, jump in the shower, and wash my feet every day. Some of these people haven't had the chance to wash their feet in a week."

Jeff Snow and his foot washing team are my heroes.  In each homeless person who comes their way, they see the face (and the feet) of Jesus.  And they get to minister to Him. How cool is that?

"As much as you've done it unto the least of these, my brothers," Christ said, "you've done it unto me." (Mat. 25:40)  

 

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How Do You Heal the Ache in Your Heart? Lesson #1 From the Homeless

His name is Rudy.  

I met him at a local park where Christians had come together to feed the homeless. He noticed my clipboard and asked me what I was doing as he made his way through the serving line. 

“I’m writing an article about this ministry for a local Christian magazine,” I told him.  “Would you be willing to talk to me about what this ministry means to you?” I asked.  He said yes, and we agreed to meet in a grassy area somewhat removed from the serving tables.

Rudy was a man of average height with clear blue eyes and a weathered face.  He seemed comfortable, even eager to talk with me that night.

“Rudy,” I said, “I’d like to hear your story.” That was all the prompting he needed to begin.

As we sat there that night, surrounded by people society would like to throw away, I heard a tale that is all too familiar.  Sadly, this tale is not reserved for homeless men who sleep in parks.  With a few minor adjustments, it is the tale of every man and woman who has ever walked the streets of our world.  Whether they eat in the finest cafes in New York or out of a dumpster in a back alley, Rudy’s story belongs to mankind.  It is the story of an aching heart.

“I grew up the oldest son of six children,” Rudy began.  “When I was ten, my parents died. The six of us were sent to a children’s home. Because I was the oldest, I knew I had to look out for my younger brothers and sisters.  I fought a lot, ‘cause it was the only way I knew to take care of them.”

“I started to drink when I was twelve.  I got messed up in drugs after that,” he said to me, his clear blue eyes meeting mine in shared sorrow.  

“I got involved in crime,” he said, lowering his eyes. “I got 20 years.  While I was there, I said, ‘No more.’"

To fill the ache inside, Rudy had turned to fighting, then to alcohol, then to drugs. One sin led to the next until he found himself where he never intended to be.  From that hole, He looked up into the face of Christ and discovered a Man who knew all about him and loved him anyway. 

“I waited patiently for the Lord,

and he turned to me and heard my cry for help.

He brought me up from a desolate pit,

Out of the mirey clay,

And set my feet upon a rock,

Making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

A hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

And put their trust in the Lord.

How happy is the man

Who has put his trust in the Lord.”  (Psalm 40:1-4)

“I talked to Scott (the ministry coordinator) and asked Christ to be my Savior,” he confessed, lifting his eyes again in determination, "and I haven’t drank in 6 weeks.  I grew up blaming God, but the rough times made me realize I needed God.”

“I still live on the street,” he said with a shrug, “but I know now God's gonna give me the strength I need to get through.”

Our aches may not be as obvious as Rudy’s, but they are there nonetheless. They are open, empty places that we try to fill with everything but God. We may not use alcohol or drugs, or we might.  We may use friends, our position at work, or the stuff we buy.  We may seek to find our worth and bury our demons behind bank accounts or relationships or even altruistic acts.  

Paschal described it so eloquently:

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there, the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”

King David found the way to heal the ache, the way to fill the void. He found it in the person of Jesus Christ.  

Rudy found it too. 

If you do not know Christ as your Savior, the Healer of your heart and the Lover of your soul, you can know him today.  Click on the link at the top, “Do You Know God?”  It will be the best decision you will ever make in your life, and one that you will never regret.

If you do know Christ as your Savior, I challenge you to open up the aching places in your heart to His healing touch.  He wants to fill those places with his peace, his love, his healing, and his forgiveness.  He is waiting for you to let him in.

Christ said in Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to  the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;"  


Christ came for Rudy.   He came for me.  He came for you. If you can say with Rudy, “The rough times made me realize I need God,” then you have taken the first step.  I look forward to sharing the rest of the journey with you as we walk the faith walk.

  

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Angels All Around Us

“God has His angels all around us,” he said as he watched our kids.  “Sometimes we don’t see them, but they is always there.”

I met him in the park.  His name was Sam.  He wore a straw hat, and his salt and pepper afro stuck out from under it like coarse wool. His beard was scraggly, but his smile was wide.  Antique piano key teeth, ivory aged yellow alternated with black spaces, and his eyes sparkled.

Our church's youth group had come to the park to minister to the homeless.  As we instructed our students to smile, introduce themselves, and look each person in the eye, we reminded them why we had come.  “Jesus said, ‘As you’ve done it unto the least of these, you’ve done it unto me.’ Tonight we get to minister to Jesus.”

While we had planned food to meet their physical needs, we had also encouraged the students to imagine what it would be like to be homeless.  Looking at their own polished nails, the girls brainstormed, “I wonder if they would like for us to give them manicures?” 

Armed with nail files, Shea butter lotion, and six colors of polish, our Marvelous Manicure team set up shop between the food table and a man with a razor giving haircuts.  Although the homeless men greatly outnumbered the women, we soon had our six chairs filled.

It was this scene that had Sam smiling.  “Y’all could be anywhere tonight, but you’re here reachin’ out to people you don’t even know.”  My heart swelled with pride at our kids who had stepped out of their comfort zones to serve. 

Carrying the memory of the ladies’ happy smiles and Sam’s kind words, I marveled at the irony of God’s economy.  We had come to give, but in doing so, we were the ones who had received.  God says the way to be rich is to give it away.  “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over,” (Luke 6:38)

“God has His angels all around us,” Sam said.

“Yes He does, Sam,” I thought,” and sometimes they wear straw hats.”

“Don’t forget to show love to strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Heb. 13:2)

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