Inner-city ministry, lovin’ the poor and homeless, brings with it a unique way of life.
There are certain things in this line of work that you know you are signing up for:
SMELLY SEASON (begins the first day it’s really hot outside and all of your homeless friends haven’t taken you up on your offer of deodorant)
FIGHTS (Jerry Springer style)
the occasional pack of POPOs showing up (that’s police for all you suburb folk) to break up said fights
those are all the usual.
And so is theft.
But theft is different from the rest. Theft feels personal and violating. Theft makes it hard to serve someone. It creates suspicion and a filter of anger through which you have to learn how to still offer grace. It takes an extra dose of the Ghost to look someone in the eye and serve them not knowing if they are the one who is taking from you behind your back.
There is no way to describe what it feels like to have someone take from you….the same someone who you are pouring your life out for to see that they gain all that they were created to have.
There’s a depth of hurt that comes from the stealing of things.
Last month we had a break-in at our downtown facility. This particular week someone had given us $5,000.00 cash to put towards the purchase of a much-needed 15 passenger van.
Let me pause. Inner-city ministry is not super lucrative…it’s a loaves and fishes sort of thing. But honey, it’s the Lord’s work.
So buying a 15 passenger van is a move-heaven-and-earth kinda sitch. We were so proud of that cash and so excited to have a new van. (Well, new to us…remember it’s the inner-city…we knew in reality the van would still probably be painted with the daycare’s name we bought it from or say Church Van in faded lettering) But it would be our van, that we purchased and we would be able to give many people transportation because of it!
Enter the bandit…and in one fell swoop the money was gone.
We arrived the next morning and began to realize what had happened. We were devastated. How could this have happened? Who would steal from us? All of the feels of being taken from were present along with a massive dose of disappointment over not being able to buy the day-care hand me down van.
I prayed that day and asked the Lord to return to our ministry what had been taken. I pleaded with him and asked that He make it right. It was all I could pray.
Meanwhile, in a bizarre twist, The Hub had been chosen by The Robertson’s of Duck Dynasty (yeah…the bearded most loved family in America) as the recipients of their potential winnings on Celebrity Family Feud.
That was a lot to wrap our minds around. That The Hub in little ole’ Louisiana…little ole’ loaves and fishes Hub, would be spoken about on a national platform by such a recognizable family.
So amazing…and so bizarre…which is the story of The Hub in a nutshell…amazing and bizarre.
The night of the filming of Celebrity Family Feud was the night after the break-in of our facility.
I received a text that night that said, “Just got done with Family Feud! We may have lost 0 to 538 BUT we got $5,000.00 coming your way!”
My first thought was “How is it possible to lose 0 to 538???” Come to find out it is entirely possible.
Then it hit me.
$5,000.00 had been taken and now $5,000.00 had been returned.
And God had chosen to do it on the backs of some of America’s most known faces. Providing for the least known through the most known.
I know what you’re thinking…”but they lost”.
But that’s just the thing….they lost. That’s the beauty of it all. Their loss is the key.
Had they won we would have gotten a big ole’ $25,000.00 check and we would have celebrated and cheered and cried real tears and had dramatic big group hugs.
But we would have probably missed the point.
The $5,000.00 taught us more than the $25,000.00.
The $25,000 would have been amazing…don’t get me wrong…but it wouldn’t have screamed of God’s provision like the $5,000.00.
When you plead with the Lord to return what’s been taken…and He does… DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR….now that’ll preach.
Do you remember the Israelites back in the day? God did some miraculous things to provide for them. I mean some crazy-awe inspiring things.
The day they thought they couldn’t go another step without food, they woke up, rubbed the sleep from their eyes and stumbled outside to find some strange bread-like substance. “What is it?” they asked each other. (Which is what the word manna means…such a biblically rich word to us and it means “What is it?” Don’t you love the Bible so much??)
The Lord had provided what they needed…FOOD! They rejoiced.
But there was something specific about HOW he provided.
He provided that hunger-ending manna every morning, and it wasn’t more than they needed but exactly enough to satisfy their hunger.
He even told them to only gather what they needed each day.
ONLY what they needed. I would have been so tempted to rake up some extra in my satchel for a midnight snack.
The Israelites learned something about God that day.
They learned that HE COULD AND WOULD PROVIDE.
But, more importantly to God, they learned to TRUST HIM for that provision daily.
Dependence. Trust. That’s what God was after with them and that’s what He’s after with us.
He desires, more than anything, for us to look to Him for that next morsel. He wants to provide, He wants it to be a miracle.
But the miracle isn’t only the provision, it’s the fact that it’s always there…just what we need…every day.
He wants us to wake up desperate for Him, for Him to move and provide. He could, and does, provide more than we need at times, but often He gives us just enough of a morsel to push through to tomorrow.
And when we wake up, rub our eyes and worry for a split second that we will go hungry today, we look and it’s there again, HE’S THERE AGAIN.
Don’t miss the $5,000.00 looking for the $25,000.00. Don’t wish for more. Pray for just enough, for this is where abundant life is.
What do you need to step out and do, banking on the Lord to provide what you need? What risk are you not taking? What do you need God to provide in your life? Ask Him for it…and then make sure you recognize when He does.
Know that the Lord can be trusted and resist the urge to gather more than you need out of fear.
Dependence brings freedom. Dependence teaches us who our Father is. And that’s what truly matters.
Read more about it:
Exodus 16
Philippians 4:19
Matthew 6:31-32
A GIANT THANK YOU to the Robertson Fam for believing in The Hub, but more importantly, believing in what God is doing and can do in our city. We are thankful for the friendship and the partnership regardless of their winning or losing. We are honored to know you guys and thankful for the impact you are making in our world. Keep using the platform God has given you to make His name great!!
For more info about The Hub and all the crazy city-changing stuff God is doing check out our website at www.thehubministry.com.
