Life Unscripted

Have you ever had your heart gripped with so much grief you couldn’t shake it?

A grief that’s not personally yours, but one that demands action. One that begs for intervention to speak for those who silently suffer in the cold, dark places.

I don’t know that my heart has been moved over something so deeply in a very long time. I feel such a brokenness overtaking me and I have had a hard time getting it to lift.

In the town that we live in, there is such a large population of homeless people.

Men and women tucked into make-shift tarp shelters alongside the railroad tracks. Shopping carts overflowing with clothes, blankets and everything they hold dear to them busting at the seams and covered in plastic to stay dry from the elements. Fallen faces behind handmade signs asking for some leftover kindness from a stranger.

I sit here in my car, fresh air blowing my hair, on the way home from work sighing from the endless line of brake lights.

Did I miss the blessing? Transportation that’s mine, protection from the heat, a job that helps me provide for my family and a home filled with people I love. And yet I complain. Forgive me, Lord, for taking so much for granted.

Imagine having everything you know and love stripped away. No more steamy hot showers after a long day at work. No more extra fluffy pillows and warm blankets to pull fresh from the drier. No more inviting friends and family over, brewing a hot cup of coffee and plopping down on the couch to unwind.

Your identity stripped. Dreams shattered. Hope fleeting.

Do we actually see them? See them as a real, living, breathing soul deeply loved by God and cherished by Him?

Or are we too comfortable with the windows rolled up, looking the other way, fumbling with things in the car hoping their eyes don’t meet ours…

What if the reason your heart is breaking over it is because God put within you the ability to do something about it?

Jesus was busy, y’all. He spent a lot of time going from place to place, on a mission to heal this one and restore that one. One thing I’m honored to say about our Savior is He never neglected those He met along the way. He helped them too.

Has God put someone in your path today? Do you feel that tugging? That longing?

It’s Him. It’s always been Him. And it’s time we stop sending Him to voicemail. Answer the call.

It may be that God has given you exactly what they need in that moment. Sure, $5 is a nice gesture but what if you sat down next to them? What if you got to know them and truly saw them for who they are? Make them feel human again. Loved. Thought of. Worth it.

Because they are. And so are you.

Let’s make a difference. And mean it.

Living life scripted by Him,

Brittany