War.
It's a war of emotions, of addictions battling one another, of literal and spiritual assaults. The onslaught of smells, the aura of suffering all around at war with one another. It's a war of good against evil. Of incredible community and resilience and simultaneous despair, hopelessness.
Today, as I began what would end up being a 3.1mile trek around Skid Row, I was struck by this reality:
It's a war that somehow has already been won.
Jesus won it, defeated every single power of evil I see as I walk those streets. Defeated prostitution, defeated domestic violence, defeated drug addiction, defeated mistrust, defeated shame, defeated guilt, defeated generational curses, defeated sin.
We saw so many people today in deep, deep suffering. Suffering so deep that in our humanity, it's impossible to even comprehend or address.
But there was one particular interaction today I don't want to forget. As we walked through Gladys Park in Skid Row looking for people, a young woman approached us. She was bitten by a dog the day before and wanted help.
We dressed her wound and she left, a pretty minor interaction.
However, she came back...as it turns out she was still bleeding on one side of her leg. So my MA went to help her as I was caring for another patient on the sidewalk.
In the midst of their interaction, the patient shared she had planned to end her life that day. She was going to take pills. She was fed up with life.
And in that moment, the entire world stood still for her. I could sense a turn in the spiritual realm as God's eyes in that moment rested intensely and compassionately upon her.
I walked up to her and asked her if she could share with me what was going on. She said she wasn't sure, that she didn't want to live this kind of life anymore, she was tired.
War.
And yet in that moment, Jesus, the God of the universe, left his "99." In the midst of the billions in need, Jesus chose to be present to this precious 1.
Actually He has been present all along.
The end of the story is this: she decided to live. She decided to not take her life. To hang on.
Her parting words to us were: Thank you for making my day.
God saved her life today. Not because we were present, but because:
He is always present.
Because Jesus leaves anything and everything to go after just 1, just 1 who may be lost, who may be suffering, who may feel like all hope is lost.
I don't know exactly what will happen to her, but I know this:
Jesus is with her. He has always been and He always will be.
So in the midst of the war, we have a God that intentionally, persistently, and against all odds:
Goes after the 1.
N., you are God's 1. I am God's 1, your father is God's 1. He will always chase us, pursue us, be with us. May you know always that in the midst of any war you may face, you are not the 99,
You are His 1.
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