I learn about faithwalking by watching others in the crucible of life. Recently, I had a great opportunity to learn from my good friend, Todd. Todd is in business for himself and over a life-time has made a lot of money. Six years ago he sold his company and made enough money that he never had to work again.
For the next five years he spent most of his time volunteering in the state prison in Sugar Land. He mentored several men, taught money management classes, and in general became family to a group of inmates. Additionally he formed a non-profit organization that allowed him to provide an automobile to qualifying ex-offender. Todd’s life is a clear and compelling picture of a man whose faith in Jesus Christ is resulting in him giving his life away for the least of these in our society – faithwalking at its best.
I first connected to Todd in 2002. He knew about Harbor Church’s housing for men in recovery and wanted to talk with me about that. Over lunch one day we became fast friends.
As Todd’s ministry unfolded, he discovered that men exiting prison needed a faith community to love them, hold them accountable, and help them find a new life – and they needed all this on a daily basis. For most of these men, their families are often severely dysfunctional, and that family was the environment in which they had learned to use drugs and from which they went to jail. Returning to that environment only hastened their eventual return to prison. Todd was seeking a solution to this challenge.
Long story, short – he ended up purchasing 14 houses in Houston’s 5th Ward that were on the same block with the intent of turning these into a Christian community for ex-offenders. That dream turned into reality and today there are eighteen ex-offenders (and growing) living together in a community called Hope House. Now, that could be the end of the story and it would be a faithwalking story…..but there’s more.
Hope House is up and running! Now fast forward a year to last week. The ministry has grown. Todd has employed three people to give oversight to the work. Then on the Monday before Thanksgiving, out of the blue, one of the most recent Hope House employees threatened to ruin Todd and Hope House. Todd received a series of threatening phone calls and email. Because I am so intimately acquainted with how this community functions, I can say unequivocally that the charges are baseless.
I spent Tuesday – the day after the threats were made – with Todd, and the experience accelerated my learning about faithwalking. Todd was open with me. He expressed normal human anger. There were moments of real fear – what would this mean for the men who had entrusted their lives to the care of Hope House? There were moments of confusion – what is the right thing to do when baseless threats are made? How do you think clearly and act on the basis of belief rather than being emotionally reactive. I watched as Todd agonized over doing what Jesus would do in a very complex situation.
Somewhere in the midst of the day I realized that Todd was struggling with one of Jesus core teachings. He was struggling with enemy love. Jesus says clearly in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to love our enemies. In fact, enemy love is one of the primary things that sets Jesus and his teachings apart from every other spiritual leader. Personally, I don’t know many people who take that teaching seriously. Most people that I know who go to church – fear their enemies…hide from their enemies…run from their enemies…even practice retribution against their enemies. But, I find very few who actively seek to love their enemies.
Somewhere in the midst of the day Todd said to me . . . “Jesus says over and over that commitment to His kingdom will provoke persecution. I’ve got to find a way to embrace this.” And I thought to myself, “He’s serious about practicing enemy love . . . really serious. This is real life faithwalking. Pay attention Jim, and learn.”