faith unfaded

Driving home from a downtown theatre tonight, I saw a sight my heart had once grown hardened to.

It was late, past my usual bedtime in a bed I often take for granted, when I noticed others were in bed as well.

Only their beds weren’t in nice, safe homes with warm and comfy blankets. They were metal benches and door jambs with large Hefty bags providing shelter.

In some ways I’d become Cal Weaver from Crazy Stupid Love. In the movie Cal (Steve Carrell) is taken under Jacob’s (Ryan Gosling) womanizing wing. When he finds out his daughter is now dating Jacob, he refuses to accept the union because “he’s seen too much, he knows too much.”

After ten years of running a homeless ministry, I’d seen a lot myself. I knew too much. While there was never condemnation, there wasn’t a lot of compassion sometimes either.

Driving home tonight and seeing the bodies stretched out in the night air stirred up some emotions just as Katy Nichole’s In Jesus Name began playing on the radio.

I felt as if Jesus had crafted a soundtrack just for my drive.

I didn’t care why they were on the streets. Had I not suffered with addiction, mental illness, and bad choices myself? Regardless of how and why they ended up on the streets, God still loved them just as He loved me. If He could restore me, He could restore them. They didn’t need an accuser; they needed a prayer warrior.

I felt my heart praying these words to every person I passed as this song came through the speakers:

I speak the name of Jesus over you
In your hurting, in your sorrow
I will ask my God to move
I speak the name ’cause it’s all that I can do
In desperation, I’ll seek Heaven
And pray this for you

I pray for your healing, that circumstances would change
I pray that the fear inside would flee in Jesus’ name
I pray that a breakthrough would happen today
I pray miracles over your life in Jesus’ name
In Jesus’ name

I speak the name of all authority
Declaring blessings, every promise
He is faithful to keep
I speak the namе no grave could ever hold
Hе is greater, He is stronger
He’s the God of possible
(In Jesus Name, Katy Nichole)

Lord, keep me humble that I never forget how far I’ve fallen in life. That I remember that You are the God of restoration. Help me to pray, and not judge, that I will be pleasing to You in all of my thoughts as well as my actions. Amen.

Photo of “Homeless Jesus” statue outside St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Bay Village, Ohio.