project days

Been on project for almost two weeks now, and i have experienced so much, learned so much, and seen so much... I can't describe it all. I sincerely can't even process it right now. I will write about it sometime i am sure, but right now there is only one thing i know, one thing i'm learning:
Everyone needs Jesus. Everyone needs Jesus. The sex-offenders, the homeless, the parole officers, the working poor, the college students, the pastors, the recovering addicts, those in power, the prisoners, the abused, the children, the cheerleaders, You and Me. All of us need Christ. We need Him above anything and anyone else. We need Him now. We need Him oh so badly. I have seen the faces of those with no hope. I have heard the stories of lives without purpose. These people yearn for a salvation that they search for in the saddest ways. They continually try more of this world and more of themselves and the keep coming up dry. Aching for pure, clean, living water, they yearn for a break from the dirtiness of a world that has long lost its innocence.I have heard their voices. I have learned their names, and yet more than i understand, they are oh so familiar to their Father. He created them, loves them, longs for them, and patiently pursues them with His grace. He created His son in the image of love that those with no hope would learn of this anchor of His unchanging peace. These faces of the lost remind me of what it is to live apart from the salvation of Christ. It's a scary picture. I don't want to remember life without rescue.
How blessed i am though, that i can live and walk in a redemption that i did not earn and do not deserve. Recently, i have seen this same salvation in the lives of my project mates. I have heard some of their stories, and i know that they were lost. They will freely admit that without Christ, they were NOTHING. Lost, dying, and without purpose, without hope. The same empty faces that we see here on the streets, in the prisons, or in offices, could very well be from our own pasts. The stories are all different, no two people are the same, but the common thread is the truth that we have all known life apart from this transforming love. However, the beauty of grace is that now, we, who are as undeserving of forgiveness as anyone we could meet, have been sent out with the Gospel placed on our lips by our Daddy. He taught us this captivating tale of a Savior coming to earth to love those who hated Him, and then He brought us in and made this story our own. Now we go out to speak it to others. No one is above hearing it, certainly not us, whether for the first or the five hundreth time. And no one is too low or too lost. Forgiveness is for all, and needed by all... Jesus is vital. There is no life apart from Him.