‘Go for souls and go for the worst.’ (William Booth)
I have a friend who has a six year old son. As they were headed out the door to the playground one day the boy asked his father if he’d mind leaving his blackberry at home. ‘Why?’ asked the dad. ‘Because when you bring it – you aren’t really with me,’ was the answer. Ouch. Any of us who struggle to multi-task as a working parent knows how true this really is and yet it’s true for much more than our families – it’s true for our calling. How many of us understand our calling to be present with the poor and yet hardly ever touch those we are called to serve.
Presence is how the gospel grows – it’s the way people see God up close and personal. Eugene Peterson, in The Message, puts it like this: ‘God put skin on and moved into the neighbourhood.’ In a western context this means that we have to be willing to find the poor and be ‘present’ with them. Not just work for them but to be available and accessible to those we are called to serve.
Major Danielle Strickland
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