Over this past year – God has hammered home to my heart time and time again that He wants Calvary to make a very real and substantial difference in our community. I feel this conviction deep within me. But – to be honest – sometimes it’s hard for me to tell if its really happening.
This morning I joined a dozen or so other folks from Calvary at 86 Brink here in Winchester to clean up the lot of an abandoned house. The house is owned by Habitat for Humanity. They had placed a family in the house some time back – but the family defaulted on the payments, and the home reverted back to Habitat. The house and lot are completely trashed. The grass in the yard was waste high in some places. It was completely filled with trash. The crawl space under the house was packed full of junk. Someone had cut copper lines out from under the house – as well as made mince meat of the airconditioner in order to get the copper, the compressor and anything else they thought might have value. The inside of the home – though we didn’t work on it – needs to be completely gutted and redone.
We had to whack at the grass with weed eaters – then mow. We had to mow twice and then rake. Others of us were on trash detail in the yard and crawl space – while others planted a few flowers in front of the house and mulched a small area. It looked a lot different when we left.
We only spent part of the morning there – but I’ve got to think we made a difference. I’m not so naive as to think that we changed anyone’s life today. But we cleaned up an eyesore – and we got the house a little closer to being sold or reassigned to a family.
Sometimes I think that I am guilty of thinking that the “DIFFERENCE” that God has called us to make has to be accomplished in HUGE gestures all of the time. But in my moments of sanity I know that’s not really the case. The people of Calvary ARE making a real and substantial difference in our community as we live our lives faithfully for him – being obedient to what He asks of us – and taking advantage of the opportunities that He places in our paths each day.
We’re making a difference – moment by moment, day by day…a little at a time.
