Scarred Faith by Josh Ross

Author:Josh Ross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Howard Books

7

IS MEMPHIS IN TEXAS?

You see, I’ll be one of those people who live to be history makers at a young age. Oh, I’ll have moments, good and bad, but I will wipe away the bad and only remember the good. In fact that’s all I remember, just good moments, nothing in between, just living my life to the fullest. I’ll be one of those people who go somewhere with a mission, an awesome plan, a world-changing plan, and nothing will hold me back. I’ll set an example for others, I will pray for direction.

—FRANCIS CHAN QUOTING BROOKE BRONKOWSKI 1

Grief will change the way you interpret the past, and it will give you a new lens to view the future. I was first opened up to the greater suffering in the world when I took a one-week trip to San Francisco my freshman year of college. We stayed in a halfway house, living with ex-cons, murderers, and drug dealers. That one week altered my life and transformed my faith. I discovered that homeless people have names. They have stories. I also began to see that God is passionate about the injustices in our world. Suffering became real, because suffering involves people—real people. At the time, I was uncertain where this new epiphany would lead me.

Years ago, many people came to Jesus asking to see so they could believe. I do this. If you told me there was a three-legged man in a circus who could swallow swords, I would want to see it (either live or on YouTube) before I believe it.

Maybe the reason faith is called faith is because seeing doesn’t lead to belief, but belief transforms the way we see. This lesson is vital to our maturity in life.

When Jenny became sick, I was immersed in my ministry in Memphis. Scars had become contagious. When you choose to associate with the downtrodden and brokenhearted, you begin to carry their pain with you. You can’t shake the images burned into your memory from walking into depleted homes, encountering starving children, and seeing the vicious cycles of drug use and drug dealing.

While many people questioned our move to Memphis, Jenny endorsed it from the beginning. She knew that life is about adventure and journey. She understood that the way of Jesus is to run into the fight, not from the fight. I don’t want God to visit me one day and say, “Why do you keep playing it safe?”

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Hope House is a day-care center in Memphis serving children ages six months to five years who have been affected by the AIDS epidemic. Ninety percent of the kids come from families who make less than $10,000 per year. Nearly one-third of the children are known to be HIV positive, and all of them have at least one parent who is infected. Hope House opened in 1995, and they are currently the only facility in the state of Tennessee designed to meet the unique demands of children directly affected by this disease.

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