As we are continuing our somewhat public journey through the preparation process of Leon’s homeless challenge, I am hearing a lot of the same question come up again and again from friends, family, and total strangers....”how could someone with a family do something like this?”
Very valid question. It is one thing for a single guy with a heart to help people to go live on the dangerous streets of Dallas for a month...it is quite another for a responsible man, with a job, and a wife and son to do this. Crazy, right?
Well, yes, of course it is crazy! It is insane, dangerous, unpredictable, and unorthodox. And as the wife of a man who is doing this, I cannot get the craziness of the whole situation out of my head. Everyday I pray for my husband’s safety during the month of November. But more than that, I pray for his sanity, his beautiful heart to be protected, his morale to not be stifled, and his faith to be strengthened. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what this month will do to our family. How will I explain to Micah, our 2 year old son, that daddy still isn’t home? How will I get used to sleeping in our bed alone, every night? How will I get by without that last kiss and day debrief at the end of each day?
These questions could plague me for my family, as I am sure they are plaguing many of you. And for that, I appreciate your concern, and would definitely welcome your prayers for us too during the month of November. However, as a wife, which I believe is my primary role in my family, how can I tell my husband not to do something he feels called to do, for fear that our family might suffer? The truth is, I have known that this month was coming for some time. Leon and I have known each other for almost 4 years now, and since the very beginning, this has been on Leon’s heart to do. It has been discussed, prayed about, shelved for a bit, revisited, and now the time has come, and we both feel it is right.
One of Leon’s favorite stories, and more than that, a model that he lives his life by, is in the bible in Matthew 14, where there is a major storm around Jesus and his disciples while they are in a boat, and Jesus walks on water toward the disciples, telling them not to fear. He had one, particularly spirited disciple, Peter, who told Jesus that if that really was Jesus out there, to tell him to come out and walk on the water as well. Jesus promptly said “Come,” and Peter stepped out of the boat and actually started walking on the water toward Jesus. Now, there are a lot of different aspects of this story and there are a lot of different points that could be made, but to Leon, he looks at this story and sees a man who saw the Living God, and despite the scientific impossibility before him, stepped out of the boat. How many of us would have done that? Certainly not I.
But Leon would. I am convinced that Leon would have been a Peter. He would have stepped out of the boat onto the rough, stormy water before him, and he would have walked toward his God. And today, facing this month of homelessness, I am convinced that that is what he is doing. And if I trust that Leon is hearing the voice of God, telling him to jump and do something crazy, and telling him that he will be taken care of, how can I not trust that God has a plan for Micah and me in the midst of it all? I, in the midst of plenty of negativity, will not be one of the voices telling him that he is dumb for stepping out of the boat. And I think we can all learn a little bit about childlike faith from someone willing to do something so drastic just to care for people unlike him. In the end, isn’t life always insane, dangerous, unpredictable and unorthodox?
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