Living in the City

I know I've been MIA for quite some time. University, I'm finding, is fairly crazy. There's lots of reading, lots of people, and lots of fun. I've meet cute indie boys, an amazing group of friends, and sincere Christians.

Dealing with my breakup with Joel has been easy yet difficult. When I'm home for the weekend, memories flood me. I drive by the place where we had our first date, where our favourite restaurant was, and where I first told him I love him. So, I'm not a big fan of going home. I know it will get better with time. And while I'm here in the city, there's other, bigger things on my mind.

Tonight was my first night tutoring at the city mission. I'm paired with two grade one girls who have beautiful smiles and big hearts. And yet, they have so little...only a pencil in their pencil case, shirts that are wrinkled and stained, and dinner that consists of McDonald's. The mission isn't that well off, either. Their supplies are low, and they are wondering if they will even be able to give the children gifts and prizes this year since their income is based on donations.

Walking back from the mission, I passed by huge department stores and equally huge churches. I couldn't contain the tears. Everything is so upside down in this life, and what are we doing to change it? How come we are so eager to walk into a multi million dollar mega church but not spend our time with the poor and needy? To give our time, our gifts, our money?

I'm reading "Irresistible Revolution" right now by Shane Claiborne. One of the things he says in his book is..."I asked participants who claimed to be 'strong followers of Jesus' whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question. I asked this same group of strong followers whether they spent time with the poor, and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: we can worship and admire Jesus without doing what He did.We can applaud what He preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy of the Church is not that rich Christians don't care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor."

Hm. Something to think about.