Small steps toward "out there"

Posted by Alan Knox on Jun 14, 2008 in love, missional, service | 3 comments

A couple of days ago, in a post called “Living ‘out there’“, I said:

But, lately I’ve been thinking that God has another way for us to be “out there”. I don’t want to share details at this point. We have an acquaintance (not a friend yet) who has access to a group of people that may need to see a real, tangible demonstration of God’s love. In the next few days, I’m hoping to talk to our friend and see if God may be leading us both in the same direction. I’ll keep you posted.

Well, today was the day that our friend was supposed to introduce us to some people in her neighborhood. Unfortunately, she was hospitalized a few days ago. However, she was so excited that we were coming to spend time in her neighborhood, that she had already told many of her neighbors that were coming.

So, even though our friend was in the hospital, we went to meet a few of her neighbors. Several of them said that they knew we were coming – so, I’m glad we decided to go. What did we do? Well, I still don’t want to share too many details. But, the purpose of us meeting her neighbors was to begin building relationships with them. We don’t expect anything from them, but we hope to continually give and give, of our time, our energy, our resources. And, in the coming weeks, we hope that God will show us how we can serve them better.

Nothing amazing happened today – nothing miraculous or mind-blowing – except… we talked with Dennis, and we met Tina. We also met Marvin and Laura and their mother – oh, and their dog, Star. We met Belle and her adult son. And, we met a few more people who did not share their names with us – yet. These people are different than us… We’re being patient – just as God was patient with us.

What am I learning? People are important. God loves them. He’s teaching me to love them too. Yes, it was a very small step, but it was a step toward living “out there”. A small step is better than no step at all.