On the Verge of Sleeping in My Car

One of those calls you don't want to get as a pastor happened to me this week. A church member called me at home and said, "I wanted you to know that Sheila (not her real name) has run out of money and can't extend the lease on her apartment. She doesn't have a job, so she can't get another apartment. We might need to take Sheila in to stay with us, because she's on the verge of having to sleep in her car."

Please know that Sheila is a member of our church. She is a professional with graduate degrees. She has been unemployed for about a year, and without family support Sheila is running out of money. We have been supporting her in many ways, but I was just about out of ideas.

So instead of panicking, I tried something novel. I prayed about Sheila and her situation. I asked God to help me find the right person who could give her a place to live, rent-free and safe. A place Sheila could bring her cat. A place she wouldn't have to move out of in a week.

Guess what? A few people came to mind. All of the people I called are prayerful people, serious contemplative people. Within hours, one of those good people called me and said he had found an apartment for Sheila. Three months, rent-free. In a neighborhood where Sheila would feel safe as a single woman.

I cried when I got off the phone with this man. God is at work through him, and through us. As Tilden Edwards from the Shalem Institute says:

One of the most important things for a congregation is a group of spiritually disciplined, committed people at the core of the community, people whose personal and communal identities and actions are grounded in openness to God as liberating and loving light.

This group sees the community primarily as an organism mysteriously growing from God's grace, rather than as an organization that they can effectively construct from autonomous rational decisions.

All I know is, Sheila doesn't have to sleep in her car tonight. Thank God.