Lunch On The Other Side Of The Tracks

I had planned not to blog about my lunch adventure a couple of weeks ago. I changed my heart and my mind. My prayer this morning was for my heart to expand as much as Jesus needed it to in order to love all the people that He is putting into my life. The more I get out and meet new people, the more I realize God wants us to love people.

I think we tend to throw the word LOVE around a little too loosely. We love certain foods, we love certain movies, we love certain songs, we love whatever. The Bible says numerous times that we are to love people. (Leviticus 19:17, John 13:24, John 15:12, John 4:11, 1 John 4:7, 1 John 3:14). Now that doesn't mean you can't tell your friend you "love her hair". However, I wonder if it has become so easy to throw love out everywhere except to people. I mean the strangers or the people who look different than us. People across the world understand the impact of love. Even people who don't believe in Jesus Christ understand the real meaning and feeling of love. Imagine if that was lived out in the way God really intended.

These are the thoughts and prayers of my heart and a few other friends lately. So we decided since we have grown up in Jesus together, it was time to really love people. We have shared tons of lunches over the years. As much as I love lunch with friends, we did the math and realized we could be loving on a lot of people during those hours and still be together. As we gathered around a kitchen table for the first day of outreach lunch, we prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide us. We made our homemade cookies and headed out. We went to the area where we had all driven past numerous times over the years. We couldn't tell you one story about any of the people who live in that area. That was about to change!

We knocked on doors and were greeted with uncertain faces that quickly softened when they realized we didn't have an agenda or campaign material. We shared laughs, stories, and prayers with several. As we rounded a corner of a row of houses, we saw a man sitting on a front porch. As we approached, we heard his little radio and saw his denim overalls. He waved and greeted us with the same look of uncertainty. Our conversation was sweet and interesting. Mr. Scruggs lived by himself and had been in that house for forty years. He had ten kids grown and busy. He knew history about our small town and was overjoyed with our simple homemade cookies. He asked for seconds as he joked and stood to share hugs. I will never forget Mr. Scruggs. Pushing back my tears, I felt guilty for the years of lunches and my selfishness. He invited us back soon and that is a lunch I look forward to.

As we finished the small section of homes, we had extra cookies. We went over some nearby railroad tracks and the scene was completely different. Within just a few yards, the houses were grand and well kept. The hired help was out in the yard and I have to admit that our homemade cookie offer suddenly made me a little nervous. I wasn't sure what reaction we would get. The greetings of uncertainty didn't fade as quick and the smiles weren't so obvious. There were looks of confusion and doubt. One person even offered to pay us for the cookies. I wondered if they would even eat them. I quickly wanted to go back to the other side of the tracks.

I don't share any of that for anything more than to challenge you. There are people everywhere waiting to be loved. There are people who love their things and have forgotten the love of people. There are lonely people with lots of love stored up to share. You don't have to give up your friend lunch or your Starbucks run. Just find a way to share it with someone else. It will fill you up in so many awesome ways that you will want to have lunch out every day.