How you doin?

Listened to this song from Matisyahu on the radio today. Immediately afterwards heard this story of a lady who's daughter is suffering from a disease which makes the stomach so irritable that it's most of the time impossible to keep down any food. The song was really upbeat and fast and the lyrics included something like, "give yourself up and then you become whole... I come to you from the essence of my being, and I sing to my God this song of love and healing." I was basically using my steering wheel as a snare drum and my shifter as a symbol and I was rocking out, totally pumped after trying to sing along. And then to hear that story about the mother, where she ends the description of what has been done to try and treat the disease, she says, "right now we're just praying for God's will with this disease, wondering why He's given us this challenge." I was staring at the alternative radio station's frequency wondering whether I was believing what I was hearing. And so I decided I would believe it, and then look and find out who this "Matisyahu" was, and see what he stood for, besides what I heard in his lyrics.
Come to find out, he's Jewish; and, come to find out, the radio station who put on the air the mother of the sick daughter was only one station of several which were working to provide donations for the UC Davis medical centers childrens hospital.
I was pretty satisfied to find out both of those things, but still a little bit thrown in my mind trying to come to terms with some things. First of all, I don't know a thing about modern Judaism. There's a lot I can deduce about Judaism from reading the Bible, but I don't really know much at all about Judaism in the world today. How is Matisyahu reacting to the gospel of Jesus and modern Christianity?
So I researched and found this:

"The word "mashiach" does not mean "savior". The notion of an innocent, semi-divine (let alone fully divine) human being who will sacrifice himself to save us from the consequences of our own sins is a purely Christian concept that has no basis in normal Jewish thought, though it seems to have been invented or adopted by Jewish apostates in the early Church. Unfortunately, this Christian concept has become so deeply ingrained in the English word "messiah" that this English word should probably no longer be used to refer to the Jewish concept. Thus, we prefer to use the less familiar word "mashiach" throughout this page."

And "mashiach" is also found in the lyrics of Matisyahu, whose name is the ancient Hebrew for Matthew, the singer's first-name.

Anyhow, just some interesting thoughts roused by alternative radio. I've been interested in hearing a lot of "this works for me; what works for you" statements going around, as if to be a member of modern society it's important to know how to answer that statement. The other day a man asked what I was reading, and then, to my amazement, after he recalled that C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, he continues: "I think Santana has this spiritual connection when he plays his guitar. In the way he plays, you can see on his face -- just seems like he's connecting with God. I love seeing how different people connect spiritually." He didn't ask me my opinion afterwards. He just stared off in a direction, using his hand gestures in a circular pattern to depict "the spiritual world". Sometimes I wonder if my thoughts must look so ridiculous like his hands if ever I were to visualize them; the ridiculousness of how the thoughts are moving around.

Real love must seem ridiculous to watch, but it's the real love that wonders how the other person is doing, not how the other person is connecting.

Today driving home from work I saw a lady climbing into a metro-bus, as if she had just got off work. She was sort of heavy-set and her blue uniform had a badge on the side that clearly represented some security outfit. It instantly reminded me of the Union Gospel Mission, which I served at last night. There I had overheard one man in line talking with a pastor about the new job he had just got. Although homeless, and living on the street, he uses the Mission as his postal address and is able to keep his job that way.

And as I recalled last night, I began remembering some of the conversations I got into. Most of them were about how beautiful the weather is right now, or if not that, then it was seeing who needed salt and pepper and punch. The people in line, aside from one particularly sarcastic dude, had come to grab a tray, and each carried with them some of the most unpleasant faces I have ever seen. It was awesome to know beforehand that when I ask "How are you doin today?", that they would, unlike my coworkers, be interested in what I would think of their day. Each one gave this gargantuan smile and knew that I had asked because I cared. The Jr. Highers that we brought followed suit and, before there was a chance to realize it, the place was already happy as could be, and it became totally natural for me to strike up a random conversation with one of them. Each one had a story to tell (true or not true), and each one had their own reason for being optomistic that evening.

So, seeing that lady step into the bus, I imagined how awesome it would be to get to know her story. For what practical reason, I can't know. But from the way she walked and the way her shirt was untucked, I felt that she probably would not turn me down for a conversation: thus my dillema. Rather, my head began to write its own story about her, and I found myself picturing her family tree -- her being out on a limb, and about how she probably does a good job while she's at work. Have you ever felt out on a limb? In my experience, the only way that you stay on the limb is by grabbing other limbs, and depend on others to keep from falling.

Then I thought of how obvious it was that homeless people would make good security guards, because they're experienced adults who would really appreciate the pay of the meager income -- plus they have street smarts. Now I've decided that I had too much coffee this morning.

But all the same, I find it way too easy to live for good feelings. Serving the homeless was effective at cheering up hearts and providing food for hungry stomachs. However important both of those are, the good feeling I get from helping others tends to easily become the reason I continue to do it. In reality, Jesus doesn't ask us to love one another in order to share a cheerful heart: sometimes situations arise when there is nothing at all cheerful to share. Yet even in those moments we are asked (commanded; John 13:34) to love one another.

So I do look forward to the next time we get to serve at Union Gospel Mission, and I'm glad that God blessed our group and the mission with such a cheerful night.