Common ground...

At Water Street Rescue Mission, the men’s long term program has a morning chapel each day of the week. This is a great way to minister to the guys and get the day off to a good start. On one particular morning, we had arranged for a high school hand bell choir to come play for 30 minutes. It seemed like an odd fit – a group of young students from a private school playing hand bells for a group of homeless men. (I began wondering what I had been thinking when I scheduled this group to come!) It only took minutes into their playing for us to realize that God had orchestrated the hand bell choir to be at Water Street that morning.

The songs they played ministered to the men’s hearts. One song represented a storm with a calm at the end. Many of our men have weathered very difficult and complex storms – storms that are finally subsiding as they allow the peace of God to reign in their hearts.

The students also shared testimonies. One girl shared how she had spent most of her young life working hard to gain her father’s approval. She talked of how she began to relate this to her relationship with God – feeling that, like with her own father, she may never gain His approval either. She talked of how she had truly embraced God’s grace and began to see His love and acceptance for her. Many heads in the audience nodded with understanding of how she felt.

At the end of the chapel, one man came forward and clasped the hands of the director. He began to pray with her. She and the group had touched his heart.

The body of Christ has no boundaries. The two very different groups of people had reached a common ground in Christ. The differences in outward appearance were stripped away and only inward souls were left.

We are all alike on the inside – whether we’re homeless or attending a private school. We each have longings, dreams, and emptiness that only He can fill.

Thank-you Lord Jesus that you come in to our lives regardless of our background, our choices, our circumstances. You see our hearts and you meet all our needs. Thank-you for working in us. Fill the voids and heal the hurts in each of us today. Amen.

- Cheryl Wahlberg, Volunteer Coordinator