Any Mother's Son
John Fischer

“It's hard, in a court of law, to convict absentee and abusive parents, drug lords, heroine itself, and even the Prince of Darkness,” wrote Matt as he reflected on discovering the drug overdosed body of a teenage runaway and seethed inside for someone to blame. Matt is a man who ministers to homeless kids in downtown Denver. It is a unique ministry that has sprung up due to the desperate need of wandering “gutterpunks” in many American cities.

This is a new kind of “inner city,” not the ethnically divided poor neighborhoods of our cities (a tragedy of its own proportions), these are kids from middle, upper-middle class homes who find home to be a prison of sorts and prefer the “freedom” of the streets, but the dangers are great. These kids suffer across the street from Starbucks. They sleep in alleys along the financial district. They may look like normal kids hanging around a shopping mall but they are at great risk.

Matt and those he works with have created a caring community among these kids. They love them, feed them when they can, teach them the Bible, and try and somehow share their pain without judging them or scaring them away. They see some turn around and can provide the resources to help them when they are ready to do that. They see others stay the same and there is little they can do but love them and try and be there for them, and sometimes, like this time, they have to see them die.

“I'm tired of my friends dying,” says one of Matt's friends on the street. It's a comment Matt himself echoes later as he reflects on the ten kids he has seen die in the last four years of his ministry.

Matt and his organization have a unique mission to a specific need. But it occurs to me that we all probably rub shoulders with people this desperate every day without knowing it. This is not a starving child in a third world country. This is any mother's son right next to you today at the bus stop or Starbucks, and today may be his last. You have to have a reason to live in order to make a necessary change in what is a downward spiral with a powerful grip. We can give people a reason to live through loving them.

Think of it. There could be someone within your reach today to whom an act of love might be the difference between life and death. Love is the reason, and we have it. We can love with the same love the Father has loved us. It's what we are here for.

Lord Jesus, open my eyes to the vacant space inside of someone's life today.

PDL