Jesus has a gang?

So I got to do something pretty rad today. This morning (after a lovely 5:30 am wakeup, woohoo) I met up with some of the people I'm working with (more like discipling from) this summer to head down to Lancaster Ave. in Ft. Worth where they serve the homeless every Saturday morning. And by serve I don't mean hand them a meal and a bible verse, I mean listen to them, try in help them with whatever we can, and just love on them. Initially, we stand on the corner of a vacant lot and hand out water to people as they are let out of the shelters for the day. Michael, who head's up a ministry for the homeless, has built a relationship with many of these people so it's a really incredibly friendly atmosphere. After a while we walked down to what's called a "resource center" where people go after they get out of the shelters. As we were standing and talking amongst ourselves, a guy sitting at a nearby table asked us "who yall with?" And, since nobody heard/answered, I told him we were all together and working with Lighthouse Community Church (after I asked Morgan the exact name of the church, oops!) So I walked over and sat next to this guy, started talking with him. He asked what we were doing and I told him a little bit about their plans to buy a building nearby. I also made sure to tell him I was a "newbie" and couldn't justly answer a lot of his questions or even explain in detail what exactly the plans are. But we got to talking, and William starting spilling his frustrations to me, talking about how they called this place a "resource center" when there were no resources around. He told me some of his ideas for what a real resource center would look like, and I couldn't help but become captured by his intelligence and heart. His ideas were also eerily similar to many of the ones that Lighthouse and I.G. have envisioned for the building. He told me that some people around here are just content with the way things are, but he isn't. I'll never forget one of the first things he asked me, he said "look around, you don't see many people here right now, you know why? It's the beginning of the month and they just all got their checks." They have no idea what to do with it, they can't get bank accounts because 1- they don't have ID's and 2-they don't know how to manage them. We talked about a time when he was part of a gang in Chicago that ended up becoming a "gang of disciples" as he called it, his passion for Jesus was also beautifully present. He sat there, spilling his heart to me with such raw honesty, confessing that one day he hoped to get his life in order and do some of these things, but right now, right now he's an addict. I had to leave William sooner than I wanted to, but I won't forget our conversation, nor will I forget him. Hopefully I will be able to see him again next week, and continue to turn his ideas into our actions.

What strikes me so much about his story is how we're taught to stand on the other side of the street to a man like William. Like he's scary or something. There was nothing scary about a 25 year old man who is trying to seek after a better life, as well as Christ, yet can't help but get caught in the crossfire of the American Dream. Can some of these people go and get jobs, yes. Are some of them content sleeping in shelters for the rest of their lives, yes. But the majority are hungry for more than a meal, they just don't know how to stand in line for an open heart to listen. Is there even a line for such a thing? Look into the eyes of a man like William and just tell him to "go get a job," something tells me you couldn't do it, your heart wouldn't let you.