Just Show Up.
Posted: November 11, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »About a year ago, I had the opportunity to walk alongside a woman who was legitimately seeking a change in her life. She had been homeless for a number of years, and seen the rougher side, so to speak. Drugs, prostitution, physical deterioration, emotional deterioration and the worst- alcohol. It was the demon that still chased her. I asked if I could drive her to detox, and one weekday found myself on I-5 heading to south Seattle to drop her off at detox. In between slurs and what seemed like some hesitancy as to why I was helping her, I got pieces of her story. It was riveting and heart-breaking to me. It’s a life I’ve never known.
The one thing she kept saying to me was, “I can’t believe you showed up,” and “thank you for showing up.” I couldn’t shake the thought. I silently wondered how many people had “showed up” for her in life. And how many times she’d been burned, disappointed, and had her trust broken. I sat as a Midwestern girl from a healthy family, just walking with her, savoring every moment in this new experience of learning about the detox and addiction world. Thanks for showing up…..it still reverberates in my being.
Fast forward to tonight. Our church body hosted a memorial for a homeless man who died last Friday after falling back into some of his own addictions. To some he was just a homeless man, a drunk. To others, he was a man going through a radical transformation inside his heart. To some, a person & life worth remembering, telling stories about. To others, an event to skip (and this isn’t a judgment on priorities, I do realize people have lives, and aren’t as connected as I might be to this situation). It wasn’t an easy situation to deal with. There weren’t clean cut lines. But there was a Gospel message to feed the soul, and there was chili & soup to feed the stomach.
For what it’s worth (and really, what it’s worth only to me) those of you who “showed up” tonight- you have my respect.
Your character was revealed in how you treated the “least of these.”
You just showed up.
Thank you…
Dave was our brother and helping people like him is why I do what I do for a living.