Once in a Lifetime (Part Two)

You may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

According to a 2003 study by the OC Partnership Research Support Service, 80% of homeless people residing in motels become motel residents through financial hardship. They remain motel residents because they are unable to save the deposit amount necessary to get into a conventional apartment or because credit or eviction history keeps them from renting an apartment.

There are a lot of stories behind that statistic. We don’t ask the Southwood residents how they came to live there, but many of them volunteer their stories. Talking to people who work in other projects and ministries, stories are exchanged. That’s how I heard the curious term, “Love Eviction.”

I’d heard about love evictions before, but hadn’t known there was a term for them. A love eviction occurs when two people are living together in an apartment or house belonging to one of the partners, then there is a fight or breakup, and the person with the right to remain in the home kicks out the partner. A love eviction might leave a parent and child without any shelter if there is no notice given that a request to leave is forthcoming.

The same sort of kickout, informal eviction could happen between roommates, but in that case it’s not a love eviction. It’s also not a love eviction if someone leaves because of danger; for example, if one person in the home threatens or commits violence against another resident, and the resident flees. These kinds of situations contribute to something we see a lot at Southwood: people who arrive at the motel with nothing but the clothes they’re wearing and maybe a wallet or purse. No toothbrush, no toiletries, not even a change of clothes.

There are other reasons for people to become trapped in motel residence. They’re formally, legally evicted from a rented home; they are asked to leave or locked out by family members who are fed up with them; they have to leave a sobriety program; or they get out of jail or prison and have nowhere else to go—or their parole officer placed them there. For some, the motel is an upgrade from a homeless shelter or halfway house, or sleeping in their cars. And now, with the collapse of California’s economy, some motel residents are people whose homes, either rented or mortgaged, are in foreclosure.

Southwood is a meeting place, a turning point where the destinies of many different lives converge. For some, it’s a step down; for some, it’s a step up; for some, it’s a place to express gratitude for the grace of God; for some, it’s a place of despair and desperate prayer.
So, where is God at Southwood? Definitely present, though perhaps in some surprising places.

In his book, Simply Christian, NT Wright addresses the issue of God’s presence in the world. According to Wright, in the Judeo-Christian worldview, earth, God’s creation, and heaven, God’s home, are two separate and distinct dimensions that have the ability to interlock. Where they interlock can be variable or fixed.

Under the old covenant with ancient Israel, God could show up at various times and places. He met with Jacob, with Moses, and with Adam and Eve in Eden. He traveled with the Israelites through the desert. But the main fixed and dependable location for God’s presence on earth was the Temple. God could always be counted upon to be there.

One of the most striking things about the ministry of Jesus was that he greatly expanded the idea of where God could be located in the world. While Jesus was alive, and during his resurrected appearances to his friends after his death, God was present in Jesus. After Pentecost, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, God’s dwelling place changed to individual believers; Paul calls believers, “temples.” Jesus himself began setting up this idea prior to his death by instructing his followers, “…where two or three of you are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” His last recorded words, according to Matthew, are “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Under God’s new covenant in Christ, God’s people are the dwelling place, and God is present wherever his people are present.

Those aren’t the only times Jesus spoke of his presence in and among people. Also in Matthew, he speaks of being present in people in need, so much so that our good deeds to help those in need are credited by God as having been performed directly for Jesus. So, where is God at Southwood? Definitely present, in those in need as well as in those there to help meet those needs.

You may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

At any point in our lives, we stand at a juncture created by some combination of circumstance and choice. That we are often as surprised by our choices, and their consequences, as we are by our circumstances is part of the human condition. Our comfort, at every point in the times of our lives, is that God is invariably present. He is present in our need, he is present in our despair, and he is present in our gratitude and joy. Life may take all of us by surprise. God’s presence, our constant, shouldn’t.