alright, well now that the tacos have been devoured & everyone has wandered off to bed, i think i can find some more words to share.
i was just reading the last post i wrote on thanksgiving. i remember that thanksgiving quite vividly because of bill. a man who i'd just met through my friend nate. i was moved by the story of how nate met bill & how bill was welcomed into our thanksgiving feast & it really was a beautiful thing.
funny thing...
it's been over a year since that thanksgiving & i haven't seen bill more than 2 times in different random social settings.
tonight, after dinner was over, we had a house discussion about a man named bill. he's been living in a local church for i don't know how long & is apparently going to have to leave the beginning of april. no job. no place to go.
this is where the rubber meets the road kids.
we talk an awful lot around the hamline house. we talk about social justice & peace. we talk about simplicity & sharing. we also talk about hospitality. but practicing these things are COMPLETELY different than talking about them. our first year we had several different folks come stay with us at the hamline house. we had a pretty strong sense that part of what we were called to do was take in folks that needed a place to stay if we had the room. but we soon found out that even though we had physical space in our home, we were lacking in so many other ways. most of the situations led to frustration & confusion shared by everyone involved & ended in relief when it was all over. that's the truth. it looked so good on paper!
yet... i wouldn't take any of it back.
i really feel that we were doing what we felt called to do. we were faced with a choice. someone needs a place to stay & we have extra space. things didn't always go exactly the way we thought they would... but that's life right? sometimes when you stop to lend someone a helping hand, it can put you right in harm's way. it might be safer to just keep walking & not make eye contact. but i suppose we didn't sign up for safe when we decided to follow jesus. did we.
so i ask for your prayers as we consider inviting bill to come live with us. we don't know all the details yet & we're still praying & talking about what it would mean for all of us, but so far, it's unanimous. that would make 7 in the hamline house & 7 in the thomas house. oh yeah, did i mention we started a 2nd house this year? :) more on that another time.
sleepy time. thanks for listening. remember to pray for us if you think of it.
3 comments:
i admire you honey. truly. you ask all the right questions even if you don't have all the answers. (none of us do.) i'm praying...
Oh my goodness -- TWO HOUSES NOW?!?!
Yes, you really must tell that story sometime. :)
Wow. So, what you wrote here got me thinking about a lot of things. One thing it made me think about was how much you all are learning by doing. I thought of Shane Claiborne and his Simple Way community. As you probably already know, they learned so much by doing, too, in the past 10 years. When he came to speak at my school residency last January, he told us some stories about things they thought would work out great but turned out not-so-great. But the beautiful thing is that they kept learning from what they tried. They are still learning, and adjusting, especially as the community changes from time to time with people moving on or new folks coming to stay. It's so much like life, isn't it, the way we keep learning as we go?
The other thing I thought about was how true it is that ideas look beautiful on paper but are totally different from living it out. That's harder. I've experienced that so much this past year as I've been learning about nonviolence and seeking to embody it more and more in everyday life. It's hard. My batting average is not stellar. The ideas are pristine, and I wholeheartedly believe in the direction I'm going ... but I'm still growing and learning on the path, and I know commitments like this are never easy. They wouldn't be worth it if they were.
Peace to you, my brother. So glad to be hearing form you and your Hamline House life again.
momma-
i have so many questions!!! haha... thanks for encouraging me to keep asking & thank you for your prayers. i love you.
christianne-
hey sis! yes! 2 houses... haha... we have our hands and houses FULL.
thank you so much for your thoughtful response! i knew i was missing something in my life... YOU!
yeah... learning by doing! that's so true... and that's been the topic of discussion recently. sometimes you can talk something to death & at some point, you just have to start putting your hands to things that you know god cares about.
i'm so interested to learn more from you about your experience with nonviolence! that is something i really care about & i got so excited when i went to your blog & found "still forming". i watched your video that you posted back in december about your new job!!! that's so great chrissy!!! the lord is doing so many wonderful things in you! you are an encouragement to me. thank you for being you.
and peace to you as well my sister :)
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