It’s likely that most people that I meet in the street assume that I’m just an old middle-class white guy who has had an easy life and that my faith just makes my smooth life smoother. (Not true. I’m not that “old”!)
I think that beat-down people assume that Christianity only works for people whose lives were already running pretty well. The fact is, none of us run right and we’re all “losers.” We’ve all lost our innocence, we lost our way, and we all need Jesus to find us and fix us. The life-wounds that we have in common bridge the gap between my street friends and me. As a tarnished, limping lover of God I can identify with their pain and they’re more apt to take notice when I share with them about mine. My loss is their gain.
– Originally published in The Other End of the Dark: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway (the profits of which go to Freedom House).
barney wiget 