May Newsletter

So, this last month we had a pretty big snowstorm. That’s not terribly unusual for Denver, whose snowy months are March and April, but this storm brought in about 10 inches of snow. We were all preparing for the worst and cancelling meetings, because Denver doesn’t really know what to do with that much snow in the city. In the mountains we love it, but down here, we’re a bit crippled by it.

Well, after my morning meeting, and before the snow hit real us hard, I came home and approached my house only to realize that our snow shovel had been stolen. In the 7 years I have been in Denver, this was a first. And, with the ensuing snow, this was a fairly severe aggravation.

A couple of hours after I got home, I heard a knock on the door. I answered the door only to meet James, a homeless guy who had ‘borrowed our snow shovel’ to make some money. He then informed me that he was going to shovel our walks for free. I watched as he turned to begin to shovel the walks, and my heart sank a bit; he was dressed in a garbage bag and had a bare head and bare hands.

I grabbed one of my heavy winter coats, a pair of gloves, and a wool cap to give to him. Only on our second encounter did I realize that he was VERY intoxicated. I was worried for his safety, as most of the people who die on the streets due to exposure have large quantities of alcohol in their system.

I invited James into the house and offered him some tea. He told me he would rather have whiskey, and I told him that I wouldn’t serve him any. He then asked me if I would go to the liquor store for him since he had been cut off. I told him that alcohol is actually a depressant and that he should think of things to try to keep him warm. He didn’t like this idea.

I then offered to take him to the Rescue Mission, where he could get a warm meal and a warm bed. He REALLY didn’t like this idea. To James, it was more important to be able to drink all night in the snow than to sober up in the warmth of the shelter.

Since that day, we’ve seen James several times, and had several opportunities to share Christ’s love with him, but every time he seems fairly reticent to talk about anything spiritual, or to accept any help that would mean that he would have to give up alcohol. It’s been a sad endeavor, but one that doesn’t leave me hopeless.

Dietrich Bonheoffer, a Lutheran pastor in Germany during the Nazi Regime, wrote in a book entitled Life Together these words, “True Spiritual Love is when we stop talking to a person about God and start talking to God about that person.” In the almost 5 years that I’ve been on staff at Scum, I have had to take these words to heart when my ministry feels futile and ineffective; these words remind me that God is at work even when I don’t see an immediate response.

And these words have taught me to have patience. It’s been this patient prayer that has bore the fruit of so many that I, and countless others, have considered impossible. It’s been the prayer for my friends like Jesse, Neil, Sissy, Don, and so many others who, although they have seemed like lost causes, have grown immensely closer to Jesus. I had to learn, in this patient prayer process, that the effective work of the Spirit is a marathon, not a sprint. And in this process, I have learned to lean more heavily into the only One who is capable of bringing about change in a person’s life: Jesus Christ.