He awoke in a fluster and said, "Hey Joey." I was taken aback because at first I did not recognize him. Through the haze of inebriation he explained that he attends our Sunday Lunch every week.
I found myself feeling extreme compassion for this individual. He stays in a tent within a wooded area of the city and he is a slave to the substance of alcohol. In his drunken stupor he found his way to our church, a place where I think he subconsciously knew he would be safe.
Instead of calling the police (which would have gotten him nowhere but deeper in debt with fines he cannot pay) I sat with him, gave him crackers and water to sober him up, and one of our secretaries came out with a first aid kit to dress the gash on his forehead. After our secretary left, he and I had a candid conversation about his addiction, his current life situation, and the truth of Jesus' gospel that calls us to a life of freedom and love. I told him how important he was.
By sitting with him I hoped to show that he was not forgotten in society. By giving him food and water and dressing his wounds we hoped to show we care for his physical situation (a new earth). And by speaking the Truth in his life I hoped to remind him of who he is as a child of God (a new heaven).
We cannot separate the physical and spiritual needs of this world. Jesus never did, so why should we?
Revelation 21:1 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer."
