Love on the Down Low

Here is a tidbit from the book Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. He is an amazing writer and I recommend everything he has written or said in a sermon. You can find his teachings under Mars Hill (the name of his church) at iTunes in podcast form for free.

I thought this passage was inspiring. I felt challenged to find what I can be doing in my own area and neighborhood and church.

I am learning that the church is at its best when it is underground, subversive, and counter cultural. It is the quiet, humble, stealth acts that change things. I was just talking to a woman named Michelle who decided to move into the roughest neighborhood in our city to try to help people get out of the cycle of poverty and despair. She was telling me about the kids she is tutoring and the families they come from and how great the needs are. Some other women in our church heard about Michelle and asked her for lists of what exactly the families in her neighborhood need. (One of the families wrote on their list "heat".) They then circulated the lists until they found people who could meet every one of the needs. It's like an underground mom-mafia network. Michelle told me at last count they had helped 430 families, and they are making plans to expand their network.


What can you be doing? Maybe you can't move to the ghetto, but surely there is something you can be doing to love on your neighbor.

Ideas:

Spend your fast food money on the homeless guy with a sign.
Find a church that does outreaches of this type, and get involved.
Start a clothing closet at your church for families in need.
Start a food pantry at your church.
Take your family to the local shelters and serve a meal once a month, a week, or as Part of your Sunday Sabbath.
Buy a case of water and hand out bottles to anyone you come in contact with. Who couldn't use a drink?
If you go to Hillside, pray and get involved in the ministries already in progress.
Pray for God to reveal people in your area that need help, then help them.
If you know a single mom, dad, or kids who are home alone often, do something to help- make dinner and bring it over, invite the kids over to just be, bring some fall decorations (or whichever season you are in), buy an extra coffee for a neighbor, buy bulk and give a food basket with your extras, send your kids over to pull weeds when they are naughty (your kids not the neighbors), etc.
Volunteer anywhere there is a need (neighbors, neighborhood schools, cleanup projects, community centers, church, shelter, Crisis Pregnancy Center, and on and on!)

What do you do already? Or what have you done in the past that may give someone a new idea of how to love others?