I am around so many that have been abandoned and forgotten, or at least feel that way – either in the real world or through connections in cyber space. These are people who wonder if the doors of heaven are still open to them, whether in heaven or on earth. The theme of abandonment keeps resurfacing in my life, mind, heart, and ministry, as I am with people who just don’t seem to fit.
I recently posted on facebook that I believed heaven probably looked a bit like a long stint on Rudolph’s Island of Misfit Toys – everyone in need of some repair and some child who still wants to play with them…
I think I have learned that people are very fickle, including myself. At one moment you can be a hero and famous and have the best seat at the table, and in the next moment the flame is blown out and you are asked to leave survivor island, pack up your items, and go home. You didn’t get the million dollars. (just look at what is happening to Mel Gibson heralded for his movie about Christ, but now that his sore are revealed… well, you know) The same has and can happen to me and to you.
Is there a being that says “You are not Abandoned?”
I have to believe that is the idea behind the gospel, where the good news is that God is with us, that He is living in the midst, and that heaven is not cut off while there is still a brief in our lungs…
Pershing Park is a big mess – always has been. A mix of illnesses and agonies -whether it is rich/poor; colored/white; religious/non-religious; hungry/filled; joyful/depressed… you get the picture. It is beautiful in its own lack of sanitation. It is a reputation of real life. Despair leads to hope to despair to hope – finally to hope because at Pershing we want people to know that they are not abandoned. Fickle humanity has a chance because the disguise of Jesus is found there.
Last Wednesday one man traveled all the way to the park to find me because I am the one in the city who will listen to him. He is both mentally ill and addicted – dipping in and out of reality – so hard to converse to determine the underlying point. (There is no underlying point – heaven is probably the fact that we came together at all) But, we committed to meet when he had not had a drink for a day, so we can find a way to better clarity. I wonder what would happen if we made everyone who came to Pershing clean up their act before they got to the park?
I talk with athiests, the ex-communicated, the unclean – the question is – “is there room for me at the inn?”
The thing is – Heaven is a given, and a given under the authority of the Creator – the book will be opened by the One who created all and knows all. I don’t get to open the book. But I have a sense that there will be alot of misfits there when I think about the friends of Jesus.
I do have control of what doors I leave open in my life – who gets an opportunity to be loved here on earth. For me, that is a wide door on earth, the people who deserve and get my love. After all, this is supposed to go so far as including my enemies.
Pershing Park has a big door. You can get to the park from all directions – south, north, east, west. It does not have doors that can be locked. We who have been shipwrecked in many ways together, have had our other vessels crash, have landed at the Park of Misfit People, all awaiting something better.
Thanks Jeff. Powerful and always important to remember. I appreciate you!