Homeless With or Without a Home

By Peter Lundell –

I spent two and a half days with a group in my church on skid row in Los Angeles (thank you to Pastor Tony who hosted us). If you go there any time day or night, you’ll see hundreds of people on the sidewalks. We served in the missions and walked the streets with Pastor Tony, getting personally acquainted with some of the people. We also got a tour of the rehabilitation efforts going on.

I was astonished to see the clinics, rehab centers, and even a high school for the homeless. Our guide, who had once been on the street himself, told us 99 percent of the people who end up on the street don’t have to stay there. There is help.

The most important efforts are those of rehabilitation. Feeding and sheltering are essential, and serve as the doorways to getting and staying off the streets. Mental illness, addictions, and fierce independence keep many from getting that help.

I thought about all the people who have homes. But they can be spiritually homeless. Outwardly they may look fine, but inwardly they may be lost and hurting, covering up confusion and pain with the nice things money can buy. And just like the physically homeless, they don’t need to stay that way. There is help.

When Jesus walked the earth, He tended to hang out with less-than-reputable people. Religious types didn’t like that. But He told them He came for sinners, for people who need transformation.

If I think about it, and without judging, I suspect there are spiritually homeless people all around us. Are you in any way spiritually homeless? Or do you know someone who is? What difference could you make in that person’s life—or even your own?

PRAYER: Father, in Your arms is my true home. Lead me to turn away from everything that would hinder me from You. I seek you and set my heart on you for both my life that is seen and that is unseen.

“Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress” (Psalm 71:3, NIV).

When There’s No AAA

By Peter Lundell –

My friend, Ron, along with several other men was driving through the African nation of Burundi to meet local people about orphan assistance projects. None of these Americans spoke the language. Their radiator erupted, and steam billowed from the engine.

Ron automatically pulled out his AAA card. But he was in Africa. Then a boy came by with water on his head. Out there, water is a precious commodity for which people commonly walk long distances.

With a hole in the radiator, the car broke down about every two and a half kilometers. Thirty-eight kilometers lay between them and their destination—all of it through rural areas. And AAA was half a world away.

The car broke down twenty-four—yes 24—times. Imagine your car breaking down that many times on one trip. And these guys were doing this for God.

We might ask why God would allow such trouble to people traveling to the other side of the planet to serve Him. Why wouldn’t God provide something else, like a better car? Or why wouldn’t He supernaturally prevent the engine from continual breakdown? Because this problem provided a graphic illustration of something more important: Every single time the car broke down, God provided. Each of those breakdowns happened by a stream, a pond, or as someone generous to give their water was walking by.

Which do you suppose is more important to God: (A) Making our lives easier so that we no longer need Him—and forget about Him. (B) Showing faithfulness in meeting our needs and drawing us closer to Him when we’re in trouble.

You also may have experienced this sort of thing. Think how God works in your life: He loves you so much He’ll let you have trouble. And He’ll meet you in the middle of it.

“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 NIV).

“Father, You are the one who meets my needs. I commit to grow my attitude and trust You rather than get upset when things go badly. Meet me and grow me and draw me closer to You in the midst of my needs.”

Playing with Pythons

By Peter Lundell –

My parents were missionaries in Tanzania. When I was about four years old, I was playing with a bunch of older kids on a row of oil drums that stood beside a garage. In the shade between the drums and the wall stretched an animal I’d never seen before. It was long and curvy, coming toward me.

I pointed and told the other kids, but they all screamed and ran away. I scoffed at them. I was fascinated at how the animal was so big and long. I reached down to pet it. It raised and cocked back its head. I thought it wanted to be petted the way my dogs did.

The screen door slammed, my mother screamed and dashed toward me. She yanked me off those drums so frantically I thought my shoulder would separate. Some men trapped the python, and I can still see my father crushing it with a weathered 4×4.

Recently I got to hold a python like the one I’d tried to pet when I was four (except this one was tame and had a full stomach—thank you, Paula!). Paula told me that when a python rears its head like the one I tried to pet, it’s ready to strike. It would have seized me, pulled me down, and coiled around me. No human being could have pulled it off or saved me in time. Until now I never realized I had been seconds from death.

How many times in life have you naively played with danger? It can come in any form. I wonder if we often fear things we shouldn’t and don’t fear things we should. Think about that and how many ways it applies.

To take the idea further, spiritual dangers surround us as well, most of them disguised. Have you experienced your heavenly Father crushing evil that may have harmed you?

PRAYER: Father, in my foolishness I have sometimes played with danger—and with evil. Thank you for Your protection. May I always carry in me the mind of Christ so that I will act faithfully in the face of danger and of evil.

“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3 NIV).

Mountain on Fire

By Peter Lundell –

Colorado mountain on fire. High winds blow it into conflagration. Firefighters come from across the country. Thirty-two thousand residents evacuate. Panicked people drive on the wrong side of the road. Cell phone networks jam. People in safety still feel panicked. Others repeat the word “nightmare.”

The raging power of the flames roars through the forested slopes, eating animals, homes, ranches, anything in the way of its jaws. The sky bloats with white smoke, black smoke, brown smoke, a mile high and as far as one can see. It then descends across the entire city of Colorado Springs and beyond. Like an alien invasion. It is the worst fire in the state’s history.

Life goes on with us in the rest of the city, but unease lines people’s thoughts. The feelings of collective loss and the taunting sense of helplessness lie heavy.

Perhaps at some time your life has been brutally interrupted as well. Natural disasters hit cities. But more often cancer, debilitating illness, divorce, or losing a job hit individuals. These afflictions come like raging flames roaring through our lives, eating bodies, relationships, or the worlds we’ve so carefully built for ourselves.

Despite insurance, diligence, and all the cautions we may take, we are still fragile, still vulnerable. When we’re hit, life still goes on. And we may feel very alone. But we’re not.
And we’re never without hope. We mainly need to see right. My friend Cec lost his home and son-in-law in a fire several years ago. And what he said will forever stay with me: “I’m in God’s hands. I was in God’s hands before the fire. And I’m in God’s hands after the fire.” Think about what that means.

Be ready for anything that may happen to you: Are you in God’s hands?

PRAYER: Lord, no matter what I go through, I am in Your hands. My family is in Your hands. My job is in Your hands. All I have is in Your hands. All my failures and successes, fears and hopes are in your hands. . . .

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (Psalm 46:1-3 NIV).

Too Intense

By Peter Lundell –

Minneapolis Airport. In front of restrooms. A man walked by talking intensely on his cell phone. Some kind of processor reacted differently at higher temperatures. Really important stuff. The man was intense.

So intense that he marched right into the women’s restroom.

My jaw dropped, along with the jaw of another guy who was watching. “Did he just . . . ?”

“Yeah, he did.”

A lady walked out. No guy. Another lady, straight-faced as the first. Were they as obliviously focused on themselves as he was on his conversation?

Finally the guy came out. Still on the phone! My jaw dropped again.

He skulked around the corner of a service entry and appeared to hide, probably embarrassed. At least I hadn’t heard any screams. We continued to gawk as I imagined it wouldn’t have gone very well for him to admit during such a serious business call that he’d just walked into the Ladies’ room. I briefly meditated on that thought.

I saw a sharp contrast: On one hand, we can get so serious about ourselves and what we think is important. On the other hand, we can do mindlessly dumb things in the process.

Have you ever done something dumb, or made a bad decision, or hurt someone because you took yourself and what you were doing too seriously?

I’m all for striving and achieving, but not at the expense of family, or faith, or fully living. Try this: If you’re in danger of getting so focused on yourself or your own interests that you lose sight of things and people around you, ask yourself this question:

“What is God’s perspective on what I’m doing?”

PRAYER: Lord, work in me a heart of wisdom that I would live each day with Your perspective. May I see as You see, and may I think and act as You would have me.

“The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. . . .Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:10, 12 NIV).

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