We have a ministry within our church, we label as Matthew 25. We pick up donated pastries, bread, eggs, soup an even bicycles to give to 9 ministries struggling to bring light to the very dark places within our city. As a result of this outreach we have actually witnessed the sweetness of our Savior brought to communities that have felt abandoned. We have seen Bible studies and worship started where there was no church. We have seen smiles on faces where frowns were more prevalent.  How? By bringing not only the rolls, cakes, and staples but the Word of Life as well.

I’ll be honest with you. This small ministry shakes me to the core of my spiritual life? Why? Because it is so simple but so incredibly rich in teaching us about spirituality. Carlo Carretto wrote these words, “How can you live in the same house with someone (forever!) without the same likes and dislikes? How can you sit at table together with different plans-or worse, opposing ones?

‘I died on the cross for you and you don’t move a finger for me.’ Jesus would have the right to say to me, And: ‘I’m faithful, I’ve never betrayed you. And you? Betray me in all you do. I love poverty. What about you? What do you love? I consented to be humiliated, ridiculed, defeated, while you are afraid of what others will think of you.’

Isn’t this so? The journey is long and its name is exodus. The exodus is the journey made by human beings to learn God’s tastes by experience. It is God’s school, the apprenticeship of the kingdom, the child’s growing up to become like the parent.”

So there it is. I am continually being taught by my Savior a very real and simple lesson. Danny, it really is about the bread about the sweetness of the Lord. Not about budgets, or buildings, or staffing it’s about learning to stand with another. It’s about the simplicity of giving, of sharing and taking the time to listen. To what? To another’s  pain, loss, their anger of where they are at that moment in life. Then to say, “I will be here with you because the Lord says this is the right thing to do. Because how can I live in the house of the Lord and not do these things?”

Where are you on the path today?