Our dear friend (and killer writer) Pam Hogeweide posted a story about her unique church family up in the Portland, OR area. I am reposting the last part of her story because she did such a fantastic job of describing the spiritual practice of noticing…which we’re very much interested in spreading about here in DE Land. Enjoy…

Many of us at The Bridge invest our time and hearts into HOMEpdx. My good friend Donna, whom some of you know, helped launch what she calls The Exchange Program at The Bridge. The Exchange Program is having people from our church go downtown on Sunday to help out in practical ways with HOMEpdx. It’s an exchange from us to them.

Our volunteers help do tasks like hand out new socks, or keep the coffee table orderly and stocked. Covering these small tasks helps free up Ken and the rest of the HOMEpdx team so they can concentrate on the vital one-on-one contact which is the absolute heart and soul of their community. In fact, we tell our Bridge volunteers not to distract the HOMEpdx team with too much chit-chat and visiting. So many of us are friends with one another that it is easy to get caught up huddled together rather than reaching out in warm conversation to the good folks we are there for.

Normals. That’s what I am and the rest of our Bridge Exchange volunteers are who go downtown. Ken tells us that it is a huge deal for normal people like us to take the time to engage with the people who live outside. They are accustomed to Normals ignoring them, passing them by and not even acknowledging their existence with eye contact. I get it, I really do. Many of us are rushing from one place to the next and we know if we make eye contact it might require something more, and quite honestly we can’t engage with every homeless person who crosses our path. But the harsh reality is that many Normals will ignore the broken sons and daughters and fathers and mothers of our city and pretend they aren’t there. It’s too uncomfortable facing human failure eye to eye.

But the love of God helps HOMEpdx not only look eye to eye, but heart to broken heart. Ken and the team and the partners who serve the meals are dishing up more than hot cooked food on platters. We are dispensing the power of noticing, of paying attention. For that’s what love looks like. It’s not a demand, nor a duty. Love just Is.

Love mostly is just ordinary everyday stuff. Nothing fancy. No spectacular display needed. Love is just showing up, where the idea of Normals and Homeless doesn’t exist. There’s no us or them, just Us. That is love. Just Us.