Denver

Once again I am at another transition in my post-college life!

I have been living in Denver, Colorado for the summer, doing an internship at The Denver Rescue Mission. I, along with the other interns, are living among those coming out of homelessness in a transitional housing program.

I am seeing people with different eyes...."T" is a man that I might have seen on the streets a year ago. Even though I have made friends with the homeless in Columbus, I am realizing that I still put them in a different category than myself. But now that I eat dinner with "T" and sit and chat with him about sports or how my day was, I treat him differently than "the homeless." My heart breaks with the realization that my whole life I have looked at people through such human eyes and not through the eyes of Christ. "T" has taught me more than he realizes. In fact, I am realizing that these people I am living among have a stronger love for Christ than I perhaps ever will. And I am seeing them succeed and move towards new life. Such a visible, tangible, expression of the life that Christ offers all of us.

There are difficult things about my internship, like the realization that sitting at a desk all day maybe isn't my thing. And the frustrations in hearing stories of phone calls from those struggling and needing our assistance that for whatever reason we simply can't help. My heart hurts for them. Yet it's just another strong reminder that we are not in control, rather He is. The other day I went out with a co-worker to talk to those living in motels. We came to tell them of the Denver Rescue Mission and ways that we could help them. And when we offered prayer, not one turned it down. There is nothing like praying for a person. Lifting up one who is suffering to the Lord is far more of a gift than any material thing. I am thankful for that realization. I will never be able to do enough physically for someone, but if I fail to lift them up to the Lord, I have neglected to give them something far more precious.