Chugging Along Through this Time of Uncertainty

Network is chugging along through this time of uncertainty. We continue to welcome folks to our back door for coffee and access to a bathroom, which is a vital resource even during the best of times. Our Tuesday Shift Director, Robin, has been organizing lunches and the community has answered the call. You can sign up too, if you feel so inclined. We distribute 60-80 lunches per day to our homeless friends, Monday through Saturday.

We have taken this time at Network to take a deep breath, take a look around the place, and take stock of what opportunities present themselves for a little TLC inside the house. The basement needed some attention so we set ourselves to it. Gary and Reggie have thrown themselves into the work along with Ryan, and the basement is looking better than it has in years. It looks like a real professional operation down there!

We have also taken this time to mourn the lack of resources the homeless have as well as take stock of the abundance that surrounds us. We grieve that the condition of our homeless friends has only been highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis. While the city of Denver has taken measures to shelter some people, the needs of others are ignored or they are actively disrupted in sweeps. Still, we are encouraged by the outpouring of support our community has shown for our Network guests in providing lunches and coffee and a smiling face at least once a day. And we're inspired by the way our guests turn to each other and take care of one another when it's needed.

Which leads me to a question: during this time as well as during ordinary times, what do we owe to each other? It's a question that keeps cropping up for me. As people, as part of the human family, as followers of Christ, what do we owe to each other? If it wasn't obvious before, it should be now, that we owe each other more than an exchange of goods, more than a meal or a few bucks now and then. We owe each other love and everything that comes with that: belonging, presence, patience, forgiveness, grace, and a chance to be heard and known. Our capacity to do this at Network has been diminished by the realities of the virus we all face together. And yet, we also find ourselves in an increased solidarity with each other. We find that the opportunities to live up to the task of loving one another have increased. 

Ultimately this is the abundance we seek: the time and opportunity to love our neighbor. Opportunities to love, even in this confusing time, are all around.

Peace,
Logan – Monday night Shift Director

Network & COVID-19, March 2020

As I write this we are in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic due to a mysterious and intrusive virus. We’re greeting people at our back door and allowing them to come in one at a time to use the restroom, snag a cup of coffee and a drive-thru style prayer. 

We’re sticking close to the Source and doing our best to offer a non-anxious presence. 

View fullsize

Recently a new volunteer named Pam remarked, “There’s a special feeling about this place, like heaven and earth touch each other here.” 

Chad, a guest who recently returned from his hometown in Kansas, chimed in, “This place feels more like home than the place I grew up.” 

I believe the atmosphere that both Pam and Chad described can be called a non-anxious presence and it’s needed now more than ever. 

So what does that mean, a non-anxious presence? 

A non-anxious presence is practicing a state of being that is lovingly connected to God and others while maintaining a loving disconnection from chaotic and fear-filled emotion. As the response to Covid-19 is teaching us, it’s so difficult not to get caught up in the collective consciousness of fear and melodrama. 

It seems every circumstance we face in life is practice for something else we’ll face later on. If that’s true, then we at Network, have been practicing for this unique situation for a long time. The potential for fear and anxiety within our community of marginalized folks is always present. We spend our days pushing back on the lonely, the anxiety, and panic. 

In light of his passing, I’ve been thinking about our founder, John Hick’s greatest hits and one of the lessons John passed on to me was his interpretation of the Gospel of 

John 14:1-2 “Don’t let your heart be anxious… I’m going to prepare a place for you.” John believed Jesus was modeling what our task at Network should look like. We’re to be preparing an actual place that feels like a safe and loving home for both the tangibly and spiritually homeless – a hospitable space of non-anxious presence.

It takes practice – daily practice. 

Practicing the habit of non-anxious presence can look like but isn’t limited to…

• Taking a slow walk at the end of the day as the sunlight fades.

• Jotting down all your anxious thoughts on to paper followed by deep breaths.

• Lighting a candle and sitting for 20 minutes of complete silence to de-clutter your thoughts. 

• Sketching a picture of your favorite tree, rock formation, or river. 

• Reading a story to a child or elderly friend.

• Writing a poem about something that moves you.  

• Meditating on a piece of scripture. 

Whatever allows you to see reality, receive God’s embrace, and then come into the presence of another without agenda and without your own special brand of chaos, do that. If our work is preparing a place of non-anxiety then perhaps we need to perceive these type of practices as an actual part of our job description. This is the work of non-anxious presence. May we all participate in this divine work throughout this season.  

Be still and know,