The Tenement
May 19
Take care of my sheep.
John 21:16
Jim and Char sold their Colorado ranch and used the money to purchase a
rundown Colorado Springs tenement. They immediately began renovation,
believing God had led them to this decision.
Over the next seven months they experienced times when they wondered
how things would work out, but they never questioned that it would. Several
times the project seemed doomed to delay, only to see miraculous things bring
them back on schedule. Eight months to the day they’d sold their ranch, they
opened the homeless shelter.
Char hired workers and interviewed volunteers between cooking and
cleaning. Jim spent his days calling and visiting local businesses and churches
asking for donations. His evenings were spent doing structural maintenance
and whatever else needed done.
By the end of the first month, they were feeding and housing twenty-
seven men and women. Both Jim and Char fell into bed exhausted at the end
of each day. Feeding cattle and horses on the ranch had been rough work that
had yielded a sense of accomplishment. Yet, it couldn’t touch meeting the needs
of God’s flock!
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God isn’t going to ask most of us to sell our homes and take on such a daunting
task. But we are all capable of feeding God’s sheep, and He expects us to do our
part. Learning what our responsibility is requires thought and effort.
Not all of God’s sheep are starving from a lack of physical nourishment
or a lack of housing. Many need nourishment of another kind. Some of our
elderly need rides to the store and help with their shopping. Broken families
need a compassionate ear and wisdom in how to handle specific situations;
their children need a mentor that may no longer be in the home.
Most of us fit in the category of going to work every day to provide the
service we were hired for. A smile from behind the counter can do more for the
person who needs to see it than all the money in the world.
Nourishment comes in a variety of packages. Discovering what someone
needs requires us to be discerning, looking for signs.
Prayer
“Give me discernment, Lord. Show me who needs
my help today. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”
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