tax collectors and sinners

I was watching a show on A&E called "INTERVENTION" and it got me thinking. For several years now I've had a dream that tugs at my heart and resurfaces from time to time. Every time I see or hear something that deals with drug/alcohol abuse, homelessness, prostitution, inner city violence, teen pregnancy, etc. my heart just aches. I want desperately to offer hope, to offer relief. I want to listen to their stories. I want to feel their pain. I want to be a part of their better ending. I realize that within me is HOPE, within me is LIFE- and it's the cure to their cancer. I stumbled upon a poem that was convicting:

What, finally, shall we say?

What, finally, shall we say
In the last moment
When we will be confronted
By the Unimaginable, The One
Who could not be measured or contained
In space or time
Who was Love Unlimited?

What shall we answer
When the question is asked
About our undeeds committed
In his name—
In the name of him
For whose sake we promised
To have courage
To abandon everything?

Shall we say
That we didn’t know—
That we couldn’t hear the clatter
Of hearts breaking—
Millions of them—
In lonely rooms, in alleys and prisons
And in bars?

Shall we explain
That we thought it mattered
That buildings were constructed
And maintained
In his honor—
That we were occupied
With the arrangements
Of hymns and prayers
And the proper, responsible way
Of doing things?

Shall we tell him
That we had to take care
Of the orderly definition of dogmas
So that there was no time
To listen to the sobbing
Of the little ones
Huddled in corners
Or the silent despair
Of those already beyond sobbing?

Or, shall we say this, too:
That we were afraid—
That we were keeping busy with all this
To avoid confrontation
Wih the reality of his meaning
Which would lead us to repentance—-
That it was fear that kept us
Hiding in church pews
And in important boards and committees
When he went by?

—Ursula Solek

Jesus paved the way for this kind of selfless love. Matthew 9:10-13 says "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and 'sinners' came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and "sinners"?' But when he heard it, he said, 'Those who are well have no ned of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.'" I want to walk in Jesus' footsteps and offer hope to the tax collectors and sinners... because in all reality, I am no better than they, only I have been rescued by the grace of my Father.