I volunteered today through Walk of Love to serve food to the surrounding community of low-income housing. 

First, we put together the bags of snacks in a well-organized and efficient yet completely fun way. Then we took to the streets and the homes to hand them out to anyone who’d take one.

As I was walking, a thought occurred to me. We talk an awful lot about how black lives matter or how police lives matter, but how many will look at someone living in poverty and say, “This specific life matters”?

When you put a face to the issue instructor of keeping it on a theoretical level, it changes everything. It becomes about serving Jesus in His most distressing disguise, as Mother Teresa once said.

It’s about repenting of the notion that the people I’m serving are somehow lesser or beneath me, like I’m condescending to meet their needs, but rather understanding that we’re both broken and just as much in need of saving grace as anyone who ever lived. It’s knowing that we both equally bear the Imago Dei, the image of God.

I love how the Walk of Love ministry is right in the middle of the community, getting to know the people and listening to their stories, working with them instead of merely doing things for them.

That’s the kind of service that changes lives and communities. That’s the kind of love that changes the world.