Others

It was another great night at the shelter tonight. I learned something about myself this evening: it's only when I humble myself and serve those who have nothing that I truly become great. I do a lot of things in my daily life, but the times when I really feel I'm shining is when I'm doing something to help someone else. Ironic, huh? I have to become nothing in order to really be something.

This train of thought brought to mind the following poem, which I scrawled into the back pages of my Bible when I was about 16...

"Others"
Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way,
That even when I kneel to pray,
My prayer shall be for Others

Help me in all the work I do
To ever be sincere and true,
And know, that all I do for You
Must needs be done for Others

Let "Self" be crucified and slain,
And buried deep and all in vain,
May efforts be to rise again,
Unless to live for Others

And when my work on earth is done,
And my new work in Heaven's begun,
May I forget the crown I've won,
While thinking still of Others

Others Lord, yes, Others
Let this motto be,
Help me live for others
That I may live for Thee.

I didn't eat dinner tonight (was too busy) but my heart is happy and full and satisfied with this feeling of wholeness and light that only comes on shelter night. I'm so thankful for the opportunity God has given me to serve those in my community who are struggling. I'm so blessed to be able to put shoes on Jesus' love and take it to people who don't have a place to call home. What a beautiful way to celebrate the birth of Christ, who offers abundant life to all who call on Him.

Why I really can't live in a place that doesn't get snow

My town is covered in a thick, white blanket this morning and it looks so beautiful to me. In the wee hours before anyone's disturbed it, it's a perfect, glistening covering that takes my breath away.

And maybe it's because I went to college in northeastern Wisconsin, where I experienced some of my lifetime's deepest spiritual growth but snow always, always deeply resonates in my heart. Snow is my perfect visual metaphor of God's perfect grace...it covers all, fully. And even when it's disturbed you can still see it there. Even when it's sullied and ground beneath our trampling, it's still there. Even when we shun it, and try to move it out of our way, it's still there...looming large on the periphery, waiting for us to climb atop it and see the world from a higher perspective. Sometimes it comes down in large, fluffy chunks that look like bits of pillow in your hand. Sometimes it comes down almost imperceptibly, gently kissing your cheeks with a little reminder that winter is bigger than you. Sometimes the conditions aren't right for it yet, and it doesn't stick to the ground. That never stops it from trying again. Sometimes it's poured down on us so heavily we can't believe it. And then Spring comes, and as the cover of white melts away, it brings verdant new life. Tulips and daffodils spring up, their blossoms heralding the first signs of warmer, sunny days ahead.

But it all starts with snow, that perfect and pure blanket of truth that covers my world and reminds me how grace covers me and all imperfections in me completely, as far as the eye can see.

We need to wake up, get out, and go play in the grace. I mean snow.