The man on the streets. He’s 40 but looks 10 years older. Seeking money to no end, but never having enough. Hope? None. He covers over his worries with drugs or drink. His life is a joyless mess of making money but then squandering it just to forget his troubles of this life for a little while. He smells like he hasn’t bathed in weeks, and for good reason. His beard is scraggly and dirty. His hair thin and uneven. The man on the streets’ clothes are dirty and ripped. He has nothing. No one.
But wait! The man on the streets sees someone that is different. This stranger is happy. Why? His clothes aren’t expensive. He doesn’t have many nice things. And yet he is happy. The man on the streets is drawn to him. That man has something different and he wants it. The man on the streets asks this stranger why he is happy. The stranger says he has a friend. A different kind of friend. A friend that will never leave him or hurt him. A friend that will love you no matter what you have done. The man on the streets wants this kind of friend.
The stranger says his name is Jesus Christ. He says all you have to do is ask and he will be your friend. The man on the streets wants this so bad. He asks the stranger to help him. The stranger does. The man on the streets feels something he hasn’t felt in a very long time. Happy. It doesn’t matter any more that he has nothing, because he has a friend. It doesn’t matter! None of it matters, because he has a friend.
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you, even to the end of the days”
Matthew 28:19-20
This, is my mission.
