Snowball mornings

 Part 3 

You will have to excuse me if you are following along, thinking this is a chronological tale. I will be jumping back and forth and perhaps write it all out in chronological order and repost it later, but for now, we will be jumping around hehe.

That being said, living in a homeless shelter tends to blur together a mass of conversations and new friendships. Being a kind, charitable Christian has its perks and disadvantages. In the middle of June, upon entering the shelter, I was greeted with old familiar faces of staff members who had been there for years, and kindness was extended to me as I was also friends with the Shelter manager, who is a disciple-making, Holy Spirit-filled pastor in his off hours. I say off hours with a grain of salt because, as a man of God willing to drop everything to help out lost souls, there are no off hours. On the flip side of the coin, the disadvantages are the many different worldviews of shelter guests spurred on by the undercurrent of unclean spirits that push to the forefront of lost children's minds the inconsistencies they have observed in modern Christian behavior. Mocking gestures and muttered curses against Christ's deity or rehashed moments to try and belittle the one true revealed God. I learned quickly that my only response is just more charity and kindness.

Still, though God granted me favor in the eyes of the lovers of peace, as a digital minister and man of God myself, there are softened hearts that love to have conversations that are uplifting. Even though I was low on resources and had no funds, I would dole out encouragement and biblical truths with always a courteous, gentle nature, not wishing to cause conviction in pain unless the Lord willed it. I've been reminded in the past that my verbal brainstorming can rub others the wrong way. Walking around, praying Psalm 23 in my head and praying blessings over the shelter, it seemed as though most conversations around me that tried to escalate were quickly thwarted with calm answers and apologies, as the spirits behind the scenes tend to flee in the presence of a praying Christian. The fruit of this is watching as others who are taunting and slandering resolve to instead answer calmly and truthfully, turning away from the wraith that was brewing underneath the conversations.

However, the anxiety that this causes in my own heart usually ends up driving me out of the shelter into the morning to turn into a task-oriented, calendar-wielding individual searching for opportunities to improve my situation. I call these my snowball mornings as opposed to the spiritual warfare nights at the shelter.