weekends...

"i was not sure if i was going to be able to eat today. weekends are tough, everything shuts down."

once a month, we go out to forsyth park, here in savannah to try to intentionally impact some lives.
before you stop reading, i really mean impact lives.

we don't pass out tracts (ask me about that some time) or wear Christian t-shirts, or carry signs around.
we pass out hot dogs and cold water.
you see, we have come to the conclusion that we talk with our mouths entirely way too much. we want to talk with our conduct first. so we pass out food and conversation happens.
don't get me wrong, i am not suggesting that all the world needs is hot dogs and cold water.



"i was not sure if i was going to be able to eat today. weekends are tough, everything shuts down."

i have been studying the concept of sabbath a lot lately. this idea that we can stop doing, stop creating, stop striving and producing....and just be.

i learned something today, though.
i learned that we can bring sabbath to other people...we can bring rest, we can bring a sense that we do not have to keep working and striving.

we can assure them that it is not what they do, or earn, that merits love...it is simply who they are.
they are created in the image of God.

we cooked almost 120 hot dogs and fed a steady line of homeless and needy men and women, today. it was a great day. as we were leaving, a man came back to get some more water and he said:
"i was not sure if i was going to be able to eat today. weekends are tough, everything shuts down."


he ate today.
because of what he has done?
because he earned it?
because we fed him?

or simply because God can provide for us even when we cannot provide for ourselves.
sometimes, he uses us to bring sabbath to others.
even on the weekends...

when everything shuts down.

[my wife took these pictures...she is amazing.]