Pay It Forward Day

Many of us saw the movie a few years ago called “Pay It Forward.” The story of a young man who had a plan to pass on good deeds has been something that has seeped into American culture. In fact, organizers who wanted to go beyond the film developed a day each year where people are to focus on and live out this idea.

The cool thing is they have provided tools in the form of little cards to help make sure the person you show love too extends that on to the next person. I hope you will all join me tomorrow in planting seeds of love and inviting others to pay it forward. Visit the site, print some cards, and love on some people. It will be interesting to see how your one deed of love spreads into many.

Leveraging Twitter to Live Love

About six months ago a friend of mine introduced me to an amazing social networking tool called twitter. I have had a blast using twitter to stay connected with friends, network with others, and sharing knowledge quickly. It has been fun seeing how people everywhere are being turned on to twitter. It is catching on around the nation and has been the subject of many news stories lately.

Over this last week there was an interesting development in the twitter world. Ashton Kutcher and CNN began to race to see who would be the first to get one million followers on twitter. What I found so amazing about this story is the fact that once the media storm had been created they saw a way to leverage that to make a real impact in the world. They used it to bring awareness to a real need and help meet that need with resources. Please take the next two minutes and fifty five seconds to watch the full story.

Words In Motion

As we continue down the road of life our paths cross with so many different people. It is funny when one of those people is in fact a old friend from the past. I recently crossed paths with a very old friend of mine, Casey Darnell. In fact, we went to school together when we were still little kids.

Since the days we were young, both of our lives have taken many turns. What is great is that we have both landed in a similar place. We are both passionate about leading people beyond words and into action. When Casey and I sat down together over coffee his heart of love began to really shine through. He spoke of orphans and homeless people he has had the chance to minister too and how each group had impacted him.

Casey’s latest album “Words in Motion” is an expression of what is going on inside him. The words of these songs are written to motivate people to move beyond singing/ talking and into action. There are a couple of really powerful songs on the album. I hope you will check it out. His music is an encouragement for me to continually live love.

Find The Need And Show Up

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of leading a team from an area church to Hurt Park to do some outreach and love on our homeless friends. Many of the volunteers that were part of the outreach began having conversations with different people in the park. One volunteer in particular began a conversation with a young man named Chris. After talking together for some time the volunteer decided to introduce me to Chris because he was only twenty one.

Chris and I began talking for a few minutes. I asked him if he was interested in getting of the streets. He said he was not quite ready to leave. I then shared with him that he didn’t need to be living on the streets. I told him that the streets were unsafe and that he needed to go home with family as soon as possible. Then I said, “If you ever want to get off the street, give me a call.” Then I handed him a card with a map to SHO on the back.

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People all too often try to praise me and others for what we do for the homeless here in downtown. What we do is not really all that praiseworthy. All we do is show up where there are people in need.

In the city of Atlanta there are over six thousand counted homeless people. Many of them hang out in the parks during the weekend. Knowing this, we show up in the parks time and time again because we know we are going to intersect people who are in need.

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When I arrived to work on Monday, Chris was sitting in a chair in the parking lot waiting for me to arrive. When I got out of the car and walked over to him to see what was up he said, “I am going to take your advice. I want to go home.” I then told him I had several morning meetings, but if he would hang until that afternoon I would make some time to get with him to figure out a plan to make that happen.

The very next day Chris and I got in my car and I drove him home to west Georgia. Chris is off the streets and now living again with his family all because people Showed Up where the need was.

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What are the needs in your community? Is there an epidemic of illiterate children? Are there families going hungry? Are drugs on the increase in you area? Is AIDS infecting more and more people in your community? Only you can answer that question.

I remember hearing in college someone say, “If I want to get hit by a Mac truck then go stand on an interstate.” If you want to live love then go stand where the need is. Find the needs in your community then show up to help make change in those lives. Love for people does not always have to be some huge gesture. Just show up where needed and see how you will be able to live love towards others.

The Jeans - Love Hurts

Several weeks ago I was approached by one of my homeless friends out in the parking lot of Safehouse Outreach. He told me that he thought we were the same size and wondered if I had any jeans that I wasn’t using that I could give him. I told him I did and that I would try to remember to bring them to him. Fortunately I remembered and gave him the pants a few days later.

About a week or so after that exchange I was on a city walk with a team of teenagers. We bumped into my friend and I noticed that he had on the jeans. So, as a way of starting a conversation I said to him, “are those the jeans I gave you?” He quickly denied that they were for some reason. However, I could tell that they were, in fact, the pants that I had given him.

Little did I know, but when I asked him abut the jeans I had hurt his feelings. You see, my friend did not like feeling like a “charity case.” He did not want others to know that he was wearing used/ donated pants. So, when I came to the park and said that I hurt his feelings and embarrassed him in front of his friends and my group.

It was not until this past weekend that I learned I had offended him. I lead a team to Hurt Park to do some outreach when I ran into my friend. He was already chatting with a few guys from the team when I approached. I asked him how he was doing he responded very curt with me. I could tell he was upset.

I pushed him a bit further and then he became very upset and started verbally attacking me. He began to use statements that I had made in the past out of context to try and make me look bad in front of this group. It was then that the real reason of his anger came out.

He looked at me and told me that he had washed my pants, had them bagged up, and was going to give them back to me the next time he saw me. He told me that he did not want my charity because I only gave them to him to make myself look good. I tried to defend myself for a few minutes. I then realized it was futile and I left him alone.

As we were finishing up in the park I went over to my friend one last time and told him that I was very sorry, and that I did not mean to hurt him with my words. I told him I was simply trying to spark up a conversation and the jeans were something we had in common. I then told him, “Keep the pants or throw them away. I meant them to be a gift of love.”

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You know… this is one of those things I don’t like about love. You try to reach out to help someone and they end up hating you for it. You show them love and they end up hurting you in the end. Or worse, you show someone love and they receive it as hate.

All I have ever done is try to help this guy. I have connected him to two programs, given him my own clothes, found a house for him to live in for free as long as he didn’t use drugs, established a mailbox for him, and feed him every night for years. I have bent over backwards to help him and still my actions caused hurt in him.

Sometimes love hurts. That is a reality that too many people are not willing to accept. We think relationships should just be a walk in the park. Love takes a lot of hard work. And sometimes, it hurts real badly because the person you love does not reciprocate. This is where we have to push past the hurt and choose love anyway.

The only reason I have been married for eight years is because my wife and I love each other unconditionally. She has done many things to hurt me, and I don’t even want to think about how many ways I have hurt her. Still, we choose to love each other through the hurt. The best part is we always emerge on the other side stronger and more in love.

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After I walked the group back to Safehouse Outreach I went back to the park by myself to find my friend. By this time my apology had sunk in and he was receptive to me. We spent the next few hours together just hanging out talking about life, homelessness, faith, and family. It was awesome. We were both on the other side of the pain and our relationship had become stronger than ever.