Matthew and I are serving together in Young Men's Service League... and it has been so awesome!! will tell you... for a few months I wanted to quit in.the.worst.way! We were way behind in service hours and I was completely overwhelmed. However, I still felt convicted that this was something we needed to do, and sure enough, my heart finally caught up to my head. God is so good! Matthew went through a similar process, though he never felt overwhelmed but he wasn't sure he wanted to continue next year... but then he came to me and said he wasn't ready to call it quits! So here we are... and we are loving it. We went to 7 Bridges recently, and it was an incredible experience.
When you serve with 7 Bridges, you team up with their staff to visit homeless people with the intent of sharing the Good News with them... praying with them and calling them by name... and giving them lunch (and perhaps other hygiene items). You meet at "The Gardens" and have short gathering with a devotion, and they ask 7 different people to read the 7 different scriptures that the ministry was foundaed upon. When we got there and they greeted us, they asked if we would read one of their verses and share what it means to him, and of course Matthew agreed. :-) His was a verse from Romans:
4) Pursuing God’s Will-Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
I didn't ask him what he was going to share, so when he want up there and shared, my mouth, I'm sure, hung open. Matthew explained that his life had sometimes been hard because he has autism. God had made him that way, and sometimes he had been mad at God, but that God had transformed his mind and shown him that He has a plan and is (and will) use Matthew's autism to do big things.
Wow. At first I couldn't put my finger on how that made me feel...sad? embarrassed? proud? All of the above, plus some? The only "embarrassment" would've come from other Wesleyan boys being there and worrying that they might get tired of hearing about his autism, why I would worry abou that, I don't know. I was definitely shocked... that wasn't at all the direction I expected him to go with that verse. He never ceases to amaze me and illuminate his world for me. I think,because he's doing so incredibly well assimilting into "our world" that I forget how different his really is.
All of the talks we've been having lately are big reminders of that... and they are so humbling. I'm so proud of him and in awe of his courage.
