Trekking

Over the past three weeks I have had the opportunity to lead some of our students through a series of sessions targeted at discipleship. We designed Trekking to be an experiential journey allowing them to see, hear and be put in similar situations to what the early disciples would have been exposed to while walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

This past Wednesday we spent some time at a homeless shelter. We brought in some fried chicken and homemade cookies and in no time had these guys streaming in to the common room with us.
First I want to brag on our students. They were phenomenal. Their assignment for the night was to spend time talking to these guys and come out able to tell at least one of their stories to me. A couple got off to a slow start but by the end of the time I had to pry them away from their conversations. They did great!
Second I want to brag on our student ministry staff. These people are dedicated to seeing our students grow and this ministry could not function with out them. They have been and are an amazing group of people to partner in ministry with. They were right in with our students loving on these guys and hearing their stories.
Third I want to ask you a question. Have you ever read through the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John- these are letters recounting Jesus' 3 years of ministry) and asked "What did it truly look like to walk in the footsteps of Jesus?"

In the midst of Jesus ministry He spent a significant portion of His time with the "unclean." The people that normal Jewish society considered to be the garbage of the world. Sinners, the sick, those who had fallen on hard times and weren't considered productive members of society all fell into this category. In Matthew 9 Jesus responds to a jab from the "clean" religious leaders concerning the fact that He was spending time eating with "unclean" sinful people by saying these words ...Healthy people don't need a doctor; those who are sick do....I've come to call sinners... In the midst of your trek, your journey in the footsteps of Jesus, have you spent time with the people that He seemed to gravitate to?

In talking to the director at the shelter I latched on to a statement that he made in explaining who ended up coming in to seek help from them. He said "we see all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds come in to the shelter. There is no typical story. Some are struggling with addictions, some have gotten in to trouble and some have just fallen on hard times without anyone to help them get back on their feet. There is a huge percentage of people in the quad cities who are one or two paychecks away from losing their home." The last part of that statement really made me stop and think. In the past year that could have been me.
Many of the people that we push to the fringe of our daily lives are scarily similar to ourselves. Sometimes it is just as hard for me to realize my close ties to the people at that shelter as it is to realize that when Jesus spoke about coming to the sick and sinners He was talking about me.

I encourage you to spend some time studying the footsteps of Jesus and to see where your feet trek to.

I also encourage you to check out the John Lewis Shelter. They are doing some good work there.