Sometimes love can be inconvenient.

I’m sure this holds true for romantic relationships, but this story is actually about the inconvenient love of a non-romantic relationship. Well, it still affects a romantic relationship…allow me to explain.

My husband and I had a special date planned the night before I was scheduled to go out of town for a while on adventure (more on this soon in a future post).  I had planned the trip a while ago, and subsequently the date night had been planned for a while as well.  So we waited, made plans, and finally the evening came.

We got dressed for the occasion and ended up stopping into Target to pickup a few last-minute essentials for my trip, before heading to our final destination together.

Sidenote: Since we started loving the homeless in our community, it’s like we magically attract the homeless. Some would call this a “weird coincidence” but of course I know Who is orchestrating these ongoing encounters. And I like it.

Of all the people in this store that evening, one man walked directly up to us. As he approached I immediately noticed he looked like he hadn’t slept or eaten anything in days. He asked if he could borrow our cell phone to make a call. Easy yes.

He called. No one answered.

Next he asked if we knew of a place he could stay for the night. That’s when this encounter turned into one of those Getting Into the Trenches moments and an Opportunity to Say Yes.

The way I saw it, we had two options at this point:

1. Tell him about the only emergency overnight shelter in the city that would accept him this late in the evening. We could explain how to get there, even Google the address for him so he could see it on our phone, and sincerely wish him the best.
2. Help him find a meal, a bed, and maybe even physically walk him to where he needed to go. This option would almost surely necessitate canceling our cherished date plans, because there wouldn’t be time to accomplish both.

Was it a coincidence that this man had randomly walked up to what may have been the only two people in Target that night who knew exactly what shelter he needed to get checked into, how to get there, and even be willing to walk him to that location to ensure he was checked in and safe?

I think not.

Our date turned into taking our new friend (who’s name is Jared) to a warm meal and bed for the night.

Of course there was a part of me inside disappointed by abandoning our date plans and not being able to connect one-on-one with my husband before my trip. But I was kind of surprised how small and fleeting any disappointment was compared to the excitement of being able to love someone together who really needed it. It actually still felt sweet and romantic! And what really made my heart leap was when I realized that this wasn’t really a big deal for us anymore (since being “inconvenienced” had become more and more normalized in our lives). What an exciting milestone for our young marriage.

I recently came across this quote:

You love as well as you are willing to be inconvenienced.

– Ann Voskamp

How true. Option #1 would have of course been the easiest and most “normal,” since Option #2 actually required something of us. But when we stepped into Jared’s situation he was relieved of some of his burden, because we were willing to help carry it with him.

When Jared got a meal it was clear he was starving. He basically shoveled food in his mouth. I was kind of scared he might choke, but now was not the time to voice that concern. No one talked as he took time to regain some strength and gather himself. After a lot of food and a little caffeine, he started coming to life like a completely different person. Honestly it kind of reminded me of witnessing the affects of food and hunger in Africa.

As we walked to the shelter he told us a bit of his story. He’d been living homeless on the streets of Chicago for about a week, having come from Detroit with what sounded like just the clothes he was wearing. We didn’t get the whole story, but we did get to connect in conversation and enjoy the treat of a few healthy laughs together. He got all checked into the shelter safe-and-sound, and when we left he was already introducing himself to people and trying to ‘bum a smoke.’ I was happy he was safe, not hungry, and not alone.

Walking back home that night, we were happy and alive. And definitely didn’t miss the original “great date” we had planned. What God had planned was so much greater.

Inconvenient love is starting to become my favorite kind.