By Rev. Jeffery Logan,
I’ve been working with Grace-Street Ministry as a homeless outreach pastor for the past six years, and the things that this community has taught me would fill a legion of Reflectionaries.
But one of the most important is that no matter the breadth and depth of the darkness, there is always at least a glimmer of light puttering about on the periphery, shy and self-effacing in the midst of so much gloom.
And the gloom is impossible to miss. Although the community didn’t take a direct hit from the virus, the pandemic had a significant impact on the services provided, particularly bathrooms, showers, and laundry facilities
And then there are the day-to-day tragedies, large and small: the relentless deaths from drug overdose, the evictions, the violence, the strain of the everyday that tears even committed couples apart, the arrests for small transgressions that wouldn’t merit any police attention among the housed. And then there are the health challenges, the chronic diseases like diabetes or COPD that are almost impossible to manage on the streets, the seizure disorders, the badly infected sores that can lead to cellulitis, the surgeries and cancers that afflict folks without the comfort of a home to help give them the strength to fight for their lives.
Yes, it can feel overwhelming sometimes. But the light is always there as well. Sometimes it’s as simple as a group of friends, sitting on the sidewalk hopefully in the shade or under an awning, sharing what little they have. If there are several people and only one cigarette or Natty Daddy beer, it will get shared. These are by no means the standard elements, but it’s still a kind of communion, as sacred as it is profane.
And then there is the occasional bright beacon of light as when a couple recently had extra food stamp funds and threw a BBQ for unhoused people hanging out in a Westbrook park. Or another man, finally housed after an extended time on the street, who uses some of the money from his disability check at the beginning of the month to cook a meal for the folks in Deering Oaks Park.
And then there are the more traditional incursions of the sacred, as when someone asks for prayer for themselves or a loved one, or when they request one of the crosses that all of us wear. We tell them that it comes with a blessing, and we ask God to bring his strength and his love and his light into the lives of the person wearing it, and remind them that when they reach out to God, he will be reaching back. And may they never doubt that they are worthy of God’s love.
Some days it’s hard to see, but over the years I’ve become a cheerleader for those moments of light, those moments of Grace, those heartbreaking examples of the love of God. You can carry a lot of darkness as long as there’s just a little bit of light to see the way.
Rev. Jeffery Logan was ordained by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine in 2015. Prior to that, he worked for 14 years as a Shakespearean actor in New York City, and has been practicing acupuncture in Maine since 1998.
After his ordination, Jeffery started working as one of the co-pastors of Grace-Street Ministry, a homeless outreach ministry in Portland, Maine. He became executive director in 2019. https://www.gracestreetministry.org/ Grace-Street Ministry on Facebook.