Stop Focusing On The Glue
I have encountered more drugs than I had anticipated on the world race. Several times I was offered marijuana and cocaine on the streets of ChiangMai, Thailand. Instances like this have happened in many other places along the past few months. However, that’s our world right? It shouldn’t be a surprise that drugs are available wherever human civilization is, even if in the middle of the poorest countries in the world. And 10-year-old boys sniffing glue at your ministry site is normal. Wait, what?
The first time I saw it, I was shocked. I was in Manila, Philippines on a sidewalk watching the numerous cars pass by along the crowded highway. The fumes from the cars alone were enough to give me a disliking for city life there. Then, I saw it. The homeless boys we worked with the previous weekend were huffing glue fifty feet away from me. My team had just spent a whole weekend loving these kids, giving them food and showers, playing soccer, and listening to them singing about how good Jesus is. I stood there staring, speechless.
“God, is this world so messed up that kids resort to sniffing glue to numb the hunger pains? Are we doing any good?”
During our time in Zambia, the guys and I had the privilege of going into the city and hanging out, praying for, singing, and dancing with the homeless twice a week. It has been one of my favorite times and ministry’s on the race thus far. Seriously, who gets to say they’ve done that? However, there it was again. Each boy had a bottle filled not with water or soda, but glue. My heart broke again. Agitation began to sink in.
“Can’t they stop? Why are they still doing this, though we tell them time and time again that it is not good for them, and that Jesus offers something better?”
At that point I wasn’t sure what to think or feel. Spending time with those boys and young men each time is what helped keep me going throughout the week of ministry. If I was having a rough week I had Tuesday and Friday night to look forward to, because joy just kind of happens when you’re hanging out with the least of these in the streets of Zambia. And then it hit me. Rather, God spoke to me.
“Stop focusing on the glue.”
Jesus was accused of hanging out with the drunkards, tax collectors, and prostitutes. Yet, that’s not how Jesus viewed these people. He simply met them where they were at, and loved on them. Jesus looked at them as precious and wonderfully made. I am sure He told them that what He had to offer was better than whatever sin they were entangled in, but I think the majority of his time spent with them was simply hanging out. Unfortunately, what the outside world tends to do is focus on the glue. The Pharisees looked at these people and thought, “cheats, liars, drunks, prostitutes.” They couldn’t view these people as loved by the Father, because all they could focus on was the “glue” these people had. And I’m sure as the people passed by us; some thought we were crazy for what we were trying to do.
After that realization, I stopped giving any more attention to what they were sniffing behind the bushes. Instead, I sang with them, danced alongside them with my white man moves, encouraged them, and most of all loved them like Jesus would.
In life it is easy to focus on peoples’ problems rather than what they have to offer the world. Too often, we call people drunks, sluts, losers, freaks, and lost causes and declare that as their new name and identity. We see them for the bad and sinful things that they do, instead of seeing them through the eyes of Jesus. I’ve decided I’m not going to focus on the glue anymore. God is the one who changes hearts. Our job is to love at all costs even as it breaks our hearts.
And you know what? The difference in how the boys acted from the beginning of the month to the end was like night and day. Our last night, a boy stood up and spoke. “I take coming here seriously, and am thankful to have you guys come each week.” Moments like that remind me that the Light is winning.
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