What Do They Share?

We’re all so different, right?

In the past four days I’ve spoken to:

• Folks from housing projects
• Kids in children’s church at a campus chapel
• Developmentally disabled adults
• Employees at a successful financial company
• Mentors for underprivileged inner-city kids learning character and life skills through golf
• Folks from an affluent suburban church
• Women in a residential drug/alcohol treatment facility
• A group of about fifty people gathered from several small-town churches

Pretty diverse collection of audiences, huh? What in the world could people from such a wide spectrum of economic, social, and cultural backgrounds possibly have in common. What does and old bald guy say that could possibly mean anything to all these people?

Has anyone here ever had a big, God-sized dream? Ever been afraid, or felt like that dream was impossible?

Anybody ever lost something…or someone, and wondered if life would ever be worth living again? Ever been angry at God, and wondered if that was okay, or just wondered why God seemed to disappear just when you really needed Him?

Have you ever defined yourself in terms of what you can’t do instead of what you can do? How much different would your life be if your saw yourself as God does, in terms of gifts rather than deficits?

Do you know someone on the edge of quitting, someone who needs a word of encouragement? Could you be the person God sent to help that person take the first step toward healing?

Here’s what I discovered: when you ask those kinds of questions and talk about the answers, money and status and other external factors don’t seem to impact the discussion.

What really matters, matters to pretty much everyone because it matters to God and that’s how He wired us.

I’ve got this sense that’s what Jesus was trying to tell us.

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As you can see, we’ve already had amazing opportunities to share the journey of hope. One of them was this interview on a morning TV talk show: Memphis Channel 13. Enjoy at your own risk.

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Today, we talk to the men at Grace Place, the homeless ministry at Galloway Methodist Church in Jackson, Ms. Those who’ve read the book will remember a tall guy in a dirty green sweatshirt and the proclamation “I can do this.”

That guy’s supposed to be there today. I can’t wait to see him.

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