love in the margins.

it.is.so.hot.

every summer i look forward to september. when starbucks starts selling their pumpkin spice lattes. when summer ends, and fall begins. i should step outside and be able to smell fall in the air, right? wrong. this september came roaring in with another 95 degree day. i went to starbucks to pass some time and couldn't bring myself to order the deliciousness of fall in a cup. rather i sipped cinnamon coffee and looked outside at people still in their shorts and tank tops. oh well. fall will come in its time.

in the mean time, i am attempting to bring fall sooner by looking at pictures of fall trees, and applying them to my blog. i always like changing up the look of this blog...

i don't know how many of you have looked at our servants blog, but in july i blogged about what it looks like to love the least. this is something that i have been thinking on again, yet this time not specifically related to servants' work, so i thought that maybe i would discuss it a bit here.

recently i've been working with a couple in our church who are not the easiest people to deal with. hit with a few mental and personality disabilities, as well as a series of unfortunate and touch circumstances, this couple seems to have exhausted many resources and people. it seems as though they have been passed around and abandoned time after time, until one day, about a month ago, they landed in my lap.

since then i have been learning to set boundaries and speak with grace. i'm learning what it looks like to work with a family who is interested in helping as long as it is not an inconvenience to them, and a case manager who is overloaded and doesn't have time to devote. i'm learning why everyone else who has offered to help this couple has been burnt out and is now unwilling to help. this couple, by maybe only some fault of their own, has been pushed to the side in an effort to pass their problems on to someone else. and believe me, i have felt the strong urge to do the same.

this morning i started volunteering with dc central kitchen again. i worked with first helping, the street outreach program, that takes food to various places in the city, and uses it as a means to build community and work together to meet needs. throughout southeast (the part of the city my group goes to) there are a lot of needy people. a lot of them have been pushed down there through various means of gentrification in an effort to make the city a nicer place to live. these wonderful men and women live on the outskirts of society.

Jesus lived on the margins of society. He spent His time with the tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes and "sinners". He specialized in reaching out to those who had been passed along until there was no one else to help. those who were forced out of society because of disease or ostracism. He reached out in compassion to those the Pharisees and religious people did not want to touch.

i've been wondering where Jesus would be if He lived in washington, dc. i think He would be going between southeast dc where the socioeconomically marginalized live, the fields and construction sites where many illegal immigrants spend their time, and dupont circle, where a lot of the gay population lives.

the awesome thing about Jesus was that He didn't wait for people to come to Him. He went to people. and He didn't just pass them along when He got tired of them. He stuck with them--look at how many times the disciples did not get what He was saying. but He didn't just leave, He kept explaining.

we are so lucky that Jesus, in our unworthy and disgusting state, loves and forgives us and shows us unimaginable grace. the question now becomes, how do we, in turn, love, forgive and show grace to others. especially those who seem unworthy of love, forgiveness and grace?

paul says in romans 12 (because like i said, i've been studying and unpacking romans 12, and this should be included), that we are to "be devoted to one another in brotherly love. " and "honor one another above yourselves." while we could go into a whole other discussion about what honor means, i think we all know that it does not necessarily mean that we are to honor those who are "supposed" to be honored, but rather those who are not. my challenge for myself this week, and one i would encourage you to think about too, is who can you do a better job at honoring above yourself. and what would it look like? i encourage you (and i will be doing the same...) to think about one person who you have little to no respect for, and honor them this week above yourself. let me know how it works out. and if you're interested, i'll do the same.