What waits inside the Gate

Last weekend some of my friends and I took a weekend trip to Mumbai. It started off with us missing our bus to the train station, a 12 hour train ride there, getting there at 4:30 in the morning going to the Gateway of India in the pitchblack, finding out we were standing in front of the Taja Hotel just as it started to pour down rain. With no place to go and nothing to do until 10, we decided to go into the hotel cafe and have a cup of chai, this was not what I was expecting on our weekend trip! After breakfast we joined the Indian laughing club as we passed them on the street and eventually made it to our hotel. We then spent sometime with the Salvation Army and learned a little about what they are doing. There's a whole lot more to tell about about I will stick to just one thing now.

On Sunday we went to a church in one of the slums. It was cute little quaint church with a fence around the outside of it. There are five services every Sunday, each is a different language. So when we got there, there was already another service going on. At the gate, there was a lady on her knees begging. The entire weekend, and alot of the trip, we have had beggars following us down the streets, but something hit me about this particular lady. Just the fact that there was this lady sitting at the gate of this church begging. I started to think...If only she knew what waited for her inside, if only she knew of the riches inside. How many of us are sitting on the outside of the gate begging, to blind to see that the gate is already open and waiting for us to take a step of faith to enter the gate? Why did I not take her by the hand and walk with her inside? Maybe she didn't know she was welcomed, maybe she didn't feel welcomed, maybe she wasn't welcomed? How many people don't know they are welcomed into the body, or don't feel as though they are welcome, or even worse they aren't welcomed? How ofter do I walk by an opportunity to show someone they are welcomed by the body? I am so caught up in my everyday life, that I don't take the time to hold the hands of the beggers and welcome them into the body. How cold hearted am I that I don't share the love of the one who loves them SO much. There are so many people that I walk by everyday that are begging for the answer to a better life, some look to idols, some to jealousy, or selfishness, the list goes on. But they are all the same, they are sitting at the gateway to him with a life they cannot imagine on the other side of the fence. We have to stop just going throught the motions and take every opportunity to welcome them into the life that is waiting for them on the otherside, welcome them into the arms that are open wide on the otheside.