Tuesday, May 21, 2013

D.C. and Baltimore

      My time in Baltimore and D.C. has been so great! My D.C. hosts lived so close to both I kind of split my time between the two cities, so I'm moving on to Philadelphia a little bit ahead of schedule. My time here has been different, but so good. I see so much purpose in my time here and wouldn't change it if I could. There weren't big crowds of people here, they were more spread out and not really in a hang out spot, so I didn't see most of the people I met more than once. But there was one group I got to see multiple times. The under the bridge crew!

This is Jerry, William, David and I!



      While I hung out with them David told me a lot about his life and how he got to be where he is now. There are a lot of details I don't think should be shared, but it's amazing that he's doing as well as he is and that he still has a soft and open heart after the things he's seen. And David was a sweet guy too! He talked a lot about how grateful he is for all that he has. He talked about how a lot of people would talk to him and wonder how he could be as up beat as he is since he has nothing, but he said that he knew that although he was poor in some ways, really he was rich in so many more ways. He was such a great example of an attitude of gratitude! Their friend Jerry came right before I left, but I saw him a couple days later on the street and I got to talk to him a little bit more. He didn't tell me much of his story, but he still was great to talk to!
     Everyone else that I met I only saw once since people here have tended to be more mobile and not hang out or congregate in certain areas. But I've met a lot of beautiful people!
     I've just had so much peace about things being okay and allowing God to work no matter how things look. Whether things go as planned or expected or not, God can work through all things and have purpose in all things.
     A cool thing God was telling me the other day is about how so many Christians get so focused on bearing fruit in their life. And so many people work hard trying to bear good fruit. But through Jesus, we are taken back to Eden. Through Jesus' sacrifice, He erased the affect of the Fall on us, He gives us the ability and wants us to walk in our original created value. He allows us to live as if we never ate the tree. And working the ground in order for it to produce was a consequence/result of the fall. Before the Fall, man got to intimately walk in the Garden of Eden, the garden of pleasure, with God and in that place of intimately walking and abiding in God, the fruit just was without man having to work or strive. Through Jesus, God allows us to be back in that place of no striving or working to be good, we just get to know Him and walk with Him and good fruit will naturally happen as a result of us walking in communion with God. It's so free and so much easier that way! So many things in the Kingdom are flipped from what the wisdom of the world says. You would think that striving would produce more fruit, but in reality fruit thrives when you abide.

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