Rev. Melinda Giese, Minister of Discipleship & Pastoral Care
In our conversations about homelessness over the past few weeks, I’ve thought back to some of my internship experiences at Tacoma First United Methodist Church. As I mentioned in my sermon a few weeks ago, people experiencing homelessness would sleep in the doorway to Tacoma First and along the street outside the church. One of my internship projects involved engaging with this community on a basic level of learning their names and helping them pack up their stuff on Sunday morning. Before this internship, I’d never talked to anyone who was experiencing homelessness, so this was a learning experience for me.
One of the women I would find regularly sleeping outside the church was also addicted to heroin. As we’ve talked about in sermons and in our homelessness classes, the majority of people experiencing homelessness do not have addiction issues. However, this particular woman did. In my conversation with her, she mentioned starting addiction treatment, and I offered to pray for peace for her. I was surprised when she told me, “I already have peace. Every night when I go to sleep, I know I’m saved. I couldn’t stand it otherwise.”
This conversation has stayed with me for a number of reasons. First of all, I didn’t expect that she would already know and experience God’s peace while living on the street and struggling with addiction issues. I tend to view salvation as an ongoing process of becoming more like Jesus. In the moment that I met her, I confess, I did not see Jesus right away. Instead, I only saw her problems. But in her statement of faith, I could hear that God’s love was already present and sustained her day to day. She knew that God loved her and would welcome her into heaven, and that was enough for her to experience peace. While I continued to pray for more wholeness and wellness in her life, she reminded me that God doesn’t work exactly the same in all our lives. The face of God that I see might not be exactly the one that you see. God’s love shows up in different ways, meeting us where we are.
I have heard some of you mention the stickers Pastor Cara and I sent last fall that said, “You Are Loved,” and how this affirmation has helped during the pandemic. It’s such a simple statement of faith to say, “God loves me,” but also so powerful. We teach it to children in Sunday School as soon as they are old enough to learn it, but we never stop needing the reminder. As we celebrate Valentine’s Day next Sunday, I encourage you to take a moment and remember “the love which from our birth over and around us lies.” May God’s love continue to give us strength and sustain us day by day that we might also offer love to others.