Sharing the warmth

This is a picture from our church hallway. No, we don't just come in and throw our coats on the floor. We're collecting coats, hats, gloves, blankets, and things for the homeless of Fort Wayne. We call it 'Sharing the warmth of God's love.' A couple people started doing this several years ago, where we collect these items, then they just drive around and try to find where people who live on the street are either sleeping or gathering. In the summer we do an 'Undy Sundy' where we collect t-shirts, underwear, socks, hats, and more summery items. They probably do it two or three times during the winter though. And I'm sure when they get ready to leave Saturday the pile will be even larger.

What got me to thinking about this was a great quote I saw on Tammie's blog yesterday from David Crowder. Here's the quote:

“It’s important to remember that there is a big difference between compassion and justice. Compassion would be like seeing someone drowning in a river and automatically you grab that person and save him. But as you stand there, you see more and more people coming down the river drowning and you just keep pulling them out. Justice is when a person goes up the river to find the source of problem, to find out why these people are in the river in the first place. They take what they see in front of them—people drowning in the river—and their feet start moving. They acquire knowledge in process, and move from compassion to justice. We still need people downstream pulling people out, but we also need someone to get to the source of things too.”

— David Crowder in this Christianity Today interview

Sharing the warmth is definitely a ministry of compassion. We won't clothe all the homeless, we won't stop poverty, it may not change anything for anyone... But it is getting darn cold outside, and for quite a few people, it will be a little warmer. Plus these forgotten folks will meet some fine Christian people who don't want anything from them, aren't inviting them to church, and won't be preaching at them. They just want to share the warmth of God's love. It's not everything that can be done... but it's something.

I thank God for people concerned with issues of justice; but I am also thankful for the people who humbly pack this stuff into their cars and drive around FW until it's gone. God, bless them please. All of them.