Hope in Relational Ministry

I've been working on a PowerPoint presentation for our ministry that may be presenting tomorrow when we visit a United Methodist Church in the Philadelphia suburbs Sunday morning.  As I developed this slide, I thought deeply about the hope that I hold in my heart for the sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, moms and dads who suffer in addiction and who I've come to know and love in Emerald City and its neighboring under the bridge communities.

In the Jeremiah passage, the King of the Universe is reminding the reader that God has awesome plans for him and her.

In the Matthew passage, that same LORD is reminding us that even if the flame of life has gone out and you're not much more than that remnant smoking wick, God will not snuff you out. 

As I visit these under the bridge communities of people and as I watch one of the men stick a needle in his neck for his next dose of medicine or as I watch a woman walk off into the darkness for her night of 'dates,' I think of the Hope that our LORD does hold for each of them as the individuals that they are in God's artistic creation.  And so, to that end, we continue in this relational ministry in the belief that some will see the hope for them that we see for them and allow that seed of hope to be watered and grow into a whole and renewed life, one free of the deep despair of addiction and its accompanying homelessness.