Today I went and picked up an application to be a regular volunteerer dude at a soup kitchen, tutoring, mantience, odd job man. I take all the back roads to RIFA ( Regional Inner Faith Association ) I’m driving through the ghetto and the usual run down houses, it was about 3, so, school had just gotten out, masses of kids were walking home, there were a few fights, some rather brutal with people watching in the circle, it’s a depressing thing to watch. I leave my application, and then drive back the same way; some of the fights were still going on, you could tell which kids had fought by the blood on some of their faces and shirts. I drive to the north part of down and sit down in joe mugs with my C.S. Lewis and a cup of coffee. I look around and notice three guys in line, all wearing designer jeans, gold watches, and leather coats. Two business men debating which golf resort to go to, three other men talking about what color to paint their offices, a couple of kids with the local prep school uniform, and I notice that everyone of us have one thing in common: we are all completely self absorbed and we all think we are gracing the earth with our presence.

The gospel is rather radical about taking care of the poor. I do not fulfill the call of the gospel by any means; I am guilty of this as well. Holiness is not judged by what we do not do. What makes us radical as Christians? Grace and sacrificial love. Through grace, we are holy, but it is not just something we receive, it is something that we also give. The giving of grace and love without gain is absurd by any way of life other than Christianity, but without it, there is not Christianity. Christ’s sacrifice, when you look at it, it is absurd. He saved the miserable lot that killed Him. Me of all people, I hated Him.

That last thought while I was in Joe Mugs was this: God makes us lovable. A dog hates training, we are none too different. By making us more like Him through redemption, we are more capable for receiving love. God cannot love our sin, rather he loves our person because that can be changed, which ultimately, since we are created in his image, is like Himself. The easiest thing I have found to love is, sadly enough, myself. I find it is easiest to love and accept people who are like myself. There is a huge problem here. I am shown love by a God greater than myself, who reached down to something very different than He is and I am so hesitant to imitate that.