Count the Cost: Part 2

From the Salvation Army, you're listening to Wonderful Words of Life. Well, welcome back to Wonderful Words of Life, everyone. We are glad that you're here, and I am glad to introduce to you our friend and guest of this series, Captain Jimmy Taylor. Hey, thanks for having me back again.

Jimmy, it's good to have you back. This is the eighth week of our series, The Least of These, and we are truly grateful to Captains Rob and Heather Dolby for bringing us this series and sharing so much of their story. The series began on January 5th, so if you've missed any episodes, be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts or visit SalvationArmySoundcast.org to get caught up. Now, Jimmy, when we talk about The Least of These, we've talked about the Salvation Army's work a little bit in Hagerstown, where you are now, and in Atlanta, where we record these episodes, but can you kind of elaborate a little bit more about particularly what you're doing in Hagerstown? What is the Salvation Army's approach to the least of these in that community? Yeah, so in Hagerstown, you kind of alluded this to one of the first episodes. The Salvation Army is located strategically in one of the worst areas of Hagerstown, and people think, Hagerstown, Maryland?

I've never heard of that. It's called Little Baltimore. We have three state prisons. We have lots of issues with opioid addiction and heroin addiction and these type of things, and it's right on the street that the Salvation Army exists is actually the worst area for opioids and heroin, and so we struggle with how do we work with these people that are constantly in their addiction? How do we work with people that we're finding in homelessness? And so the Salvation Army there is working a lot with trying to connect people with mental health problems to other organizations and partnerships, but the Salvation Army specifically is working with women and children in our shelter. We have 38-bed shelter, and we are constantly full.

We have a waiting list a lot of times. We have people that come to the Salvation Army and will say, you know, I've stayed in my car until a place opened up because it's the only place that can serve me and my daughter. Last August, people think of homeless people as drugs or alcohol addicted people, but we had 21 children that were homeless that stayed in our shelter in August, and it was crazy.

There was a madhouse, but these are the people we're doing life with and we're loving on. We have a soup kitchen that serves almost 200 meals a day that just are people that just need food. There's such huge food inequity in Washington County, Maryland, and so we're really trying to reach into these lives. Again, that soup-soap salvation that what are we doing to meet your individual needs and how do we pull you out of where you are and set your feet and then give you the gospel, show you the love of Jesus in the midst of whatever you're finding yourself in. Absolutely.

Yeah. Now the Salvation Army is all over the world and we really do have this, the whole idea to approaching people in need with practical opportunities to kind of pull up their bootstraps and get on with life. If you're looking for an opportunity to serve in your community, I pray that you'd reach out to a Salvation Army locally and see what they're doing and how you might be able to help. And for those of you with resources that can help, and what I mean by resources is money, time, or talent.

All of the above are necessary to the Army's ministry. Without money, we can't afford to do what we do. Without time and volunteers, we can't meet the needs of the people that come to us. And so we need all the help we can get and then some. Jimmy, real quick for our listeners, what is an annual budget just for Hagerstown alone?

Hagerstown, Maryland budgets $2.5 million. That's one community where we serve. So, you know, in the United States, we use those Salvation Army kettles and it's getting harder and harder to collect money from people because that's taking cash money and nobody carries cash anymore in the society. So we're trying to do what we do in Jesus' name and we need help from people all over and in every way. So if you're someone that can do that, we pray that you'd reach out. And if you're someone that's just enjoying this series, we pray that you're being encouraged by it and that you'll come back and join us next week on Wonderful Words of Life. Thanks for joining us again as we speak about the least of these. We've been talking about counting the cost. We talked about Mark chapter five, where Jesus confronts a guy who is just absolutely possessed with demons, who is driven into a cave, literally into darkness. He brings freedom into that situation. We kind of talked about counting the cost of that and how community plays a role in that.

That's right. It reminds me of a situation that I've in my own life that I will never forget. And it's not exactly exemplified through the scripture, but I really believe that it ties in. You see, the people in this scenario that asked Jesus to leave after He had healed the demon-possessed man, they weren't followers of Jesus.

They didn't know Him. And there wasn't a responsibility to obey. But for those of us that are, that are Christ followers that do profess to know Jesus and to live by the scriptures, there is a mandate that we would obey Him and that we would keep in step with His Holy Spirit. And there are times when we do, and it's beautiful. And there are times when we don't.

There are times we miss the boat. And when I was, well, many years ago, I had a situation where I was living in a neighborhood and we were living incarnationally, which meant that we lived right next door to our neighbors. And so we had moved into one of the poorest postal codes in Canada. And we lived amongst our neighbors and where they ate, we ate. And where they did their laundry, we did their laundry. And where they hung out, we hung out. And the idea was, is just to move into the neighborhood to know people and by sharing life and by the gospel that people could come to know the Lord. And they did. They did come to know the Lord. It was also very formative in who I am as a missional believer, because there was lots of opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

So to show practical love to those in need, to the least of these. And there was in the neighborhood, this terrible pizza place. Do you remember that pizza place where for a dollar, you could get a slice of pizza, who knows how long it had been there. And just like one slice was a quarter of a pizza. Yeah, it was a huge, it was huge.

Now don't ask them really where they got their ingredients from, because there was a lot of shady rumors about that. So the quality of the pizza, but it was a dollar and you got a can of soda with that. So it was a dream come true. And I remember there was this young man that I had been praying for and we, I would see him every day and we knew one another and I knew his name and I was always praying for him and I just had a burden on my heart for him.

And I believed that the Lord could use me to intervene in his life down this path that he was on of addiction and darkness and death. And so I'd seen him that day down the street. So I remember calling his name and kind of, you know, running up after him and being, trying to chat him up and being like, Hey, how are you? And he's like, I'm hungry. And I was like, okay, well, I mean, like, I've got $2, like we could go get pizzas and soda. Do you want to do that? And he was like, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Let's do that. And so we're walking to this, you know, hole in the wall pizza place. And all along the way, I'm trying to chat him up and he's like distracted and he stopped to talk to people and trying to buy drugs along the way.

And I'm like, dude, come on, dude, come on, dude, come on. And he's not paying much attention, but you know, I've got this lure of pizza and soda, right? So we get to the place and I stand in front of the dude that sells the pizza. And I had lived there long enough then to know I did not ask for the kind of pizza I wanted. You ask for whatever is the freshest.

And that's really your best bet. So I assume that this guy that I've been trying to bring along is still right beside me. So I tell the guy what I want. I turn to look for my friend and he's gone and I can't find him. And I was like, rats, where'd he go? And on my, to my other side behind me, a gentleman says, excuse me, ma'am, can I have 50 cents?

Can we go have these on a slice? And I was like, yeah, yeah, yes. And sorry, I'm looking for somebody. I'm like, spend my time looking for this other guy that didn't want to be there in the first place, that didn't want my pizza and soda. He left, he was long gone. And I remember being disappointed because I was like, oh, I really just wanted to minister to this guy. I really just wanted to get him his food and have that divine opportunity so that I could feel really good about what I was doing there. And as I walked away from the pizza place, the Lord grabbed my heart and he was like, oh, Heather, you missed it.

And I was like, what Lord? No, I was there. I was trying to get the guy. I was trying to do the thing. And he's like, I was behind you on the other side. I was behind you on the other side. And then I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't even buy Jesus pizza.

So I spun around and I'm looking for the guy, the guy that wanted to go have his, could never find him. And I will never forget that story because the Lord knew that my heart was to do good. But it has to be more than that. As believers, our heart has to be more than just to do good. Our heart has to be to keep in step with God's Holy Spirit. Right. If we want to know Jesus in those moments that our eyes would see, our ears would hear and respond in the right way, the kingdom does come in those moments where we are close to him.

That's right. And sometimes by doing what we think is right in our own eyes, we miss out on the opportunity to do what Jesus is doing. Because what I think is best, I mean, the creator of the whole universe has much more perspective. He knows all things. He sees all things.

He knows what people need much more than I do. Right. And counting the cost, sometimes maybe counting that cost is to realize where I fall short. That's right. You know, not again, looking at the least of these, the folks that are, you know, in obvious brokenness that we're called to serve, but also maybe counting the cost looks like I need to acknowledge my own deficit, my own sin in that scenario.

That's right. And so counting the cost of ministry looks like not just when somebody doesn't act the way I want them to, but there are times when we have to recognize that we will fall short, that Jesus went right and we went left. And then how do we handle those moments?

Right. And there's this thing of keeping in step with Jesus, with his Holy Spirit. And if we want to be those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, I think that begins with our heart being in the right condition, in the right posture.

So when those seeds are sown, they not only can take root, but produce that fruit, fruit that will last. I'm reminded of Galatians, especially chapter five, this idea of there is life in the Spirit and living life by the Spirit, or I can live life to indulge my flesh. And that isn't always in these like horrible, terrible ways that are like illegal and immoral.

Sometimes it's just living life that is selfish, living life that is stingy, living life where I have to always be right or have my own way. And that's not the way of the Spirit of God. In fact, if we walk by the Spirit, we have the opportunity to say no to the desires of the flesh. And then we begin to grow the fruit of the Spirit in our life so that in those moments we have enough patience that when Jesus catches our attention and says, actually, I'm over here.

So let go of this guy who does not want your pizza and turn your attention to what I'm doing in your midst. And I think that's a beautiful gift that Jesus gives us. And it's a way to redeem moments where we feel like utter ministry failures. RB And I love that in the Kingdom, as we sit at the table with the least of these and Jesus is present, that no one has to be a failure.

Join us next week as we continue to talk about this conversation and see how God is actually the one at work and we get to follow him. Call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at P.O. Box 29972, Atlanta, Georgia, 30359. When you contact us, we'll send you our gift for this series. It's totally free for listeners like you, one per household while supplies last. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes or your favorite podcast store and be sure to give us a rating. Just search for Wonderful Words of Life. Follow us on social media for the latest episodes, extended interviews and more. And if you don't have a church home, we invite you to visit your local Salvation Army worship center. They'll be glad to see you. This is Bernie Dake inviting you to join us next time for the Salvation Army's Wonderful Words of Life.