Today at Urban Hope, the worship service was led by the youth. It was an awesome experience to see so many young people share their faith with us in several different ways. One of the most moving experiences happened when a young woman shared her testimony of experiencing childhood trauma, how that trauma affected her life and almost brought her to end it. She closed her message with how God stepped in and redeemed her life for something so much better than she could have ever imagined. She lives for Christ now, completely.
A couple hours later, I was standing under a rail road bridge talking to another woman who lives under that bridge with about forty other people. This woman is due to have a baby this fall. She said that she is drug-free and does get prenatal care on a properly scheduled basis. I congratulated her on making those decisions. She went on to say that she's barely surviving financially and works just enough to make ends meet in her life of residency under the bridge. I got brave and asked her what she does to earn a living. She explained to me that she is servicing only a very select few of her regular clients. She added that this hurts so much more than it used to because she no longer has the drugs in her to numb the emotional pain of what she's doing. My heart broke.
Here is a woman made in the image of God just as much as the woman who gave her testimony in church two hours earlier. And yet here they are on two very different paths in life. What makes them different? What makes them exactly the same? God died for each one of them equally. God loves each one of them equally. One is fully aware or at least learning more and more about her Christian path. The other one has no idea of or a twisted idea of what that Christian path could be in her life.
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