Setting Prisoners Free

Good Friday is the time when Christians celebrate the way Jesus chose to suffer and die on the cross to save us from our sins. He chose this selfless act. He chose to "give his life as a ransom for many". The All-Powerful God made choices of immense sacrifice for you and me. He chose to take on human form. He chose the path of weakness. He chose death. He chose to be separated from his Father - so He could rise again, so we can be personally saved, so we can receive the free gift of eternal life. Over the years, this is the story I've heard every Easter. I believe it and marvel at God's grace and mercy for me. He chose to suffer for me, to die for me, to forgive me, to make me new! It's very personal.  But there's far more to Easter than just my personal redemption. When we singularly focus on His selfless choices, our individual sins, and our personal salvation, we end up ignoring the overall awesome resurrection power of the Kingdom of God and the Gospel...

It’s quite simple really: the burden of working in a homeless shelter is that the lives of many people rest in our feeble hands! That’s if we care of course! Every day decisions are made. Hard decisions! Gut-wrenching decisions. Heart-pounding decisions. Decisions that are often life or death. If we care, these decisions carry a huge weight. If we love, these decisions are never easy. Life or death, health or sickness, chaos or peace, danger or safety, rests upon the decisions we have to make, daily! The everyday decisions we have to make are not something to take lightly.  When I first started working at CCO, there were nights I was haunted by the enormity of it all. I remember asking myself the overarching questions: how do I balance or protect an individual's safety while also protecting the safety and peace of the homeless community they lived in? How do we keep everyone safe, fed, at peace, and moving forward?  It really struck me at an even deeper level years ago ...