Wrote on May 1st 2013
I felt Him again today. It’s the strangest thing. I don’t have an incredibly holy job. I don’t work in a church or a sanctuary. I have never seen anyone pray. In fact His name is never even mentioned unless it is as a swear word, but still He was there.
There is something holy about taking a bruised reed in the form of a client, uncurling her from the fetal position she has probably been in for all of her life time, straightening her shoulders and seeing wings.
There is something holy about speaking to a man with such respect, in which he has probably not been spoken to in such a long, long while, that he can put his family on his shoulders and climb one more mountain.
There is something holy about explaining to a young lady, who thinks that a resume needs to be “boring to be professional”, that her resume and cover letter are extensions of her, little pieces put together to give a glimpse of who she is, that when an employer picks up her resume they should exclaim how beautiful it is.
I don’t know why He hangs out there. I don’t know what Jesus would be doing in a “welfare” office, but He is there and He does “hangout” with us.
Maybe some of you won’t believe me. Maybe when you think of “welfare” clients you think of the random drug addict or the lazy parent who doesn’t want to work. I don’t. When I think of the “welfare” office I think of the single mom that took a bus, the max, and then another bus, after walking her kids to the daycare in the pouring rain, just to get to our office and sit in front of a computer for six hours looking for a job.
When I think of “welfare” clients I think of the grandmother who already raised her kids having to get up at the crack of dawn just to get here so she can qualify for “welfare” so she can take care of her teenage grandson.
I could go on and on, you see, cause drug addicts and lazy parents ARE NOT the norm on “welfare”. People, people with everything working against them are on “welfare”. These people are the strongest, hardest, working people I know. These people have gone through more struggles then any one. Their stories are filled with incredible crisis, one after the other. Never being able to move from one crisis when another one arises.
Like the mom whose husband left her, after she spent her whole life being a stay-at-home mom, never having worked a day in her life, no skills, no work experience, now in her fifties. Having her house, the only thing she has left burn to the ground, only to find that everything was still in her ex-husbands name, giving him all the rights and the money from the insurance, giving her nothing. She spends Christmas in the back of a car with her grandson cause there is no one else. That’s part of her story, not the entire story, you would not believe me if I were to go on and tell you how one night she gets out of her bronco to try and find out why it wont start just to have it roll over the top of her, crushing every bone in her torso, back and shoulders. She is now this itty bitty grandma who is just trying to give her grandson hope. “Welfare” is all she has. "Oh, and Jesus". She says. "I don’t know why He saved me. He had to have saved me for a reason, my grandson, that’s why I’m still here", she says, a laugh in her throat, tears in her eyes.
So, yeah, maybe you think Jesus it too good for them, for those of us on “welfare” “using the system, but I don’t. In fact He’s here. He is always here. He just finally gave me the power to see Him, feel Him.
So, that next time you want to post a “welfare” post about how the clients are druggies, losers…please remember the mom who feels that if she goes out and gets a job that it feels to her like she is throwing her kids out to the wild sea, while she climbs aboard the ship…throwing them life preservers, when they need her, they need her to be home when they come home from school, or when they get up in the morning. Yeah, think of her cause…no one else is.
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the Truth in Love, Heidi L Shepherd
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