Light Under A Shade Tree

This week during some of my office hours with Lesa Floyd, the Women’s Minister at Mobberly Baptist Church, I looked through a book entitled 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. In one paragraph she wrote, “I am at the point where ‘well done’ trumps ‘well said.’” She went on to explain that when the Word of God transfers from the academic soil of someone’s mind into the sacrificial acts of someone’s hands, she is utterly affected. So am I. I couldn’t help but think back to those words, as I gathered with around twenty servants of Christ as we fed, clothed, and shared the gospel with about one-hundred homeless men and women, drug addicts, and prostitutes today in Longview, Texas through a ministry called The Shade Tree. It was a sight to behold. It was a sight I would not have seen had it not been for one lady, my new friend Betty.

My first week in Texas this summer I had the privilege of meeting Betty. Betty is in her seventies, and she teaches a Thursday morning women’s Bible Study at Mobberly Baptist Church. She may be in her seventies, but don’t let her age fool you. She is a little fire-cracker for Christ. His Words are usually on her lips. Her passion is evident in her eyes whenever she speaks of Jesus or of her vision to see women transformed by the Word of God. The day I met Betty, she encouraged me to continue following Christ. With tears in her eyes she told me how she now wishes that she would have lived for Him as a young lady. Her transparency made me want to learn from her. Even though I’ve only known her for a few weeks, I’ve learned that she has been to Africa three times, Nepal once, on a few other local missions trips, and now she feels called to work with the homeless, drug addicts, and prostitutes of Longview, Texas as well as lead Bible Studies at Mobberly so that women will be transformed by God’s Word. A Christian’s call to follow Christ is not a call that retires. Betty knows this and lives it.

When I found out that Betty ministers to the homeless, drug addicts, and prostitutes in Longview, I wanted to join her in it. That is why Betty picked me up this morning at 10 o’clock in her car full of donated bread from Panera. We drove to an area in east Longview where there are many run down hotels and gas stations close to the highway. It is a morally dark part of town. Betty explained to me that those hotels are infested with prostitution and drug dealing. We passed a couple of those hotels and then came to an old Elks Home that looked vacant. Even though the building looked vacant, the parking lot was full of chairs lined up in rows under a shade tree. In a few hours, those chairs would be full of those who wandered in off the streets or the city buses seeking food for their stomachs, clothes for their backs, and refuge from the heat under the tree’s shade. It is also under that shade, that many of them would find the light of Christ shining brightly in that dark place.

Upon arriving I got to work slicing bread and filling sandwich bags that would be given away. The other volunteers and I worked quickly as flies swarmed and the hot sun shone brightly in the Texas sky. That did not diminish our joyful spirits. As we worked, people started to arrive and fill the seats that had been set up for them. The band began to play songs of praise to Jesus. Some worshiped openly along with the music while others simply sat and listened. One of the volunteers, Maria, hung up the clothes to be given away to those who arrived. Many people looked through the clothes and picked what they wanted as the music played. Soon it was time for the preaching to begin. A man named Robert Wallace was a special guest. He had been in prison when he received Christ as Lord and Savior of his life. While giving his testimony he said, “It was while I was handcuffed and in prison that I became chained to the Holy Spirit.” He then said, “Those were beautiful chains. It is a great thing to be bound by the Holy Spirit.” As I listened, I couldn’t help but agree and be thankful anew for the Holy Spirit’s presence in my life and in the life of my brother in Christ, Robert Wallace.

The environment under that shade tree was unique. It seemed like I was the only one who had all my teeth. I talked with people who had been in prison for various reasons, had been shot and stabbed multiple times but had lived to tell about it, and the stories could go on and on. The air was filled with the smell of smoke, from those who were smoking. I was almost sure that drug dealing was taking place in one area. I saw a mom who was so poor that her two year old son was wearing little girl’s shoes because it was the only pair of shoes he had. Many looked rough, and dirty, and course.

Whenever the pastor prayed, I prayed with one eye open. For good reason…

Darkness and light collided in that place. In the middle of all of that, the name of Jesus was being proclaimed and the hands and feet of Christ were at work through His Body, the Church. You see, the Christ I serve read in the temple in Luke 4:16-19 from Isaiah 61:1-3 which says,

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the Lord

for the display of his splendor.”

Christ came to “proclaim good news to the poor” to “bind up the brokenhearted” to “proclaim freedom from the captives” and “release from darkness for the prisoners.” He does not want the people who gathered under the shade tree today or you and I to live bound to sin so that we obey sinful desires. He came so that we can be free, but we must allow Him to replace our chains that bind us to sin for the chains that bind us to God. As Robert Wallace said, those chains are beautiful. “It is a wonderful thing to be bound to the Holy Spirit”, but it is a deadly thing to be chained to sin. It is my prayer that the work that was done this Saturday in the name of Christ, would produce followers of Christ that rise up like that shade tree and “be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor” so that they can tell others that it was under the shade tree that they found the light of Christ that can illuminate the darkest of hearts.