Dear Inner Circle,
Winter is sneaking in under the cover these warm and mild days but the cold and wet nights are on the way, and they are tough on our people. I’m reminded of the testimony of that from Wayside friend and visitor Andrew. Some walk all night long or huddle up with a few trusted friends to wait out the night sleeplessly, only to make their way in for a shower and then some ‘deep prayer session’ on our chapel pews. Who would begrudge them a moment’s rest?
I was ushered into the chapel for an important matter, and I must admit I found myself a little bemused at having to step over someone, until I caught sight of his face, contently snoring. I was struck that this was someone’s son, and if this was my last day on earth, then I wouldn’t be concerned that I could not find a convenient place for a meeting but would care very much that I had shown kindness to someone’s boy.
Truth always whispers to us from the edges of things. Those at the centre yell loudly and provoke us to react, especially now as we have a neurotic news cycle to assault us, in a world where leaders seem intent on building an economy that protects the powerful at the expense of those who huddle in the gaps that society creates. So it is a discipline to get down into the gutter to simply listen. Sometimes it is listening to a contented snore, or someone who, after eating the gourmet lunch that they’d just been served, leaned over to me with half of the dish strewn all over his top, “F*$K Rev, that was dee-licious.”
Someone recently reminded me that Wayside for some is a lighthouse, a place of hope in the storms of life, and for others, well, it should be a spotlight. One that asks the questions that others fear, like, as one guy who had lived on the streets all his life so eloquently put it, “I’ve learnt to live on minimum chips, but surely there should be a limit for others, what amount is maximum chips then ey?”
His truth unnerves me, and if there is anything to be learnt from sitting in the gutter it’s that there are no easy answers here. That it is perhaps more important to live the questions in a way that honours the brave and the courageous who live in some of the direst of circumstances having faced some of the worst that life has to offer, yet somehow do so with wit and humour that humbles us every day. All a gentle reminder of the world we want to co-create and live in, a place for all to flourish.
Thank you for being part of the Inner Circle,
Jon
Rev. Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel
