Monday, March 4, 2013

The Sacredness of Hands

Hello all!

Long time no update, my apologies.  I am writing this post as I am in the middle of my last semester of seminary.  It is really hard to imagine that it is the last semester, it seems like just yesterday I started this blog to fill you all in on my new adventure in seminary.

Well lets see alot has happened since I last did an update.  I survived the General Ordination Exams and have it the ground running this semester.  I will admit that the semester has come with many challenges personally that have honestly hit me like a truck some days.  However, recently I have been amazed to see how much God is calling me to this ministry.  Despite the challenges that are coming I am finding ways that have been showing me ministry in action.  I spent a few days in February cooking at the Winterfaith shelter in San Francisco.  I was apart of a team that prepared and served meals to about 70 homeless men.  After I was done with my cooking part I decided that I wanted to sit with the men rather than doing the serving.  I had some wonderful and amazing conversations!  One of the days we had way more volunteers in the kitchen than what was needed so I sat at the entrance withe the check in crew and watched as these men came in.  I noticed their hands the most; they were dirty, cracked, and tired.  As I was watching these men sign in I was over come with emotion and with the Holy Spirit.  Hands are something that is important to all of us; we are called to be the hands of God in the world and to do this we come across hands just like these men had who are in need of rest, care and love.  As the week progressed, the guys and I had formed a relationship that was joking at time, serious at time, but at all time with mutual love and respect.  I asked one of the guys how his life was and how people saw him.  He told me that many times people do not even see him it is as if he is invisible.  However, he loved coming to the shelter because at the shelter people knew him talked to him and cared about him. I will tell you that I was taken aback by this.  I know that it is often the easy thing to do to just walk on by a homeless person but we need to remember that the homeless are children of God as well.  Something as simple as saying Good morning or hello can let them feel alive.  As I said good bye to the guys I had formed a bond with one of them came up and gave me a big hug and just said thank you.  I could see how the Holy Spirit had been working to remind me why I am being called to this ministry.

It is so amazing to me to see how God in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways reminds us of our calling.  We are all busy and at times get bombarded by the insane amount of work and commitments that we have that we sometimes loose track of our calling.  But in this past couple of weeks I have been absolutely amazed to see how God is reminding me; and all of them were when I was using my hands. 



So I wonder now how we can look to see how our hands are being used in the world. Are they being used to care, love and support our neighbors and communities?  Or are our hands in need of care, love and support? 

I look back and start to think of the many hands who have helped me during this time of seminary and I amazed.  Some where in forms of writing a check to help me pay for books, or helping me edit one of my papers, or holding my hand when things were tough or in prayer for me. 

This evening I had an amazing honor of laying my hands in prayer on one of my fellow students.  There have been so many times when I have gone to her to ask for prayer and it was amazing and honoring to be able to give her that gift back as well as receiving the gift from her.  

I challenge all of us to take a good look on our hands and to see how we can take our hands and put them to work in the world.

As always you are all in my payers.

Peace
Jason B. Lucas