Rafa and I just got done volunteering with a bunch of other people from our church, The Rock, at the AIDS walk in Minneapolis. We cheered until our throats hurt and rang our cowbells until our knuckles bled (not even kidding!). We jumped up and down at the starting line to get people pumped up for the walk and gave about a million (almost kidding) high fives to participants as they reached the end of the 10K.An AIDS walk is probably the last place most people would expect to see a bunch of evangelical Christians, but that's one of the reasons why we are there.
Jesus didn't just come to save the people with neatly packaged sins. People with public struggles need Jesus more, not less, than people who seem good on the outside and keep their sin hidden. Jesus didn't tell Christians to only be around other Christians. He didn't tell us to stay away from people we might not understand or even agree with. Jesus said "Go." He said to love our neighbors as ourselves and to be a light in a dark city.
AIDS is absolutely devastating. When I think about it, the first thing that comes to my mind is death. The hope of my life is the complete opposite of death. That's why it felt great to be there volunteering. We put smiles on the faces of hundreds of people.
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