‘A light to my path’: my battered, 32 year old working companion

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In 1993, I was in my second year studying social work at Hull University. I had just read Ron Sider’s book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger which relentlessly emphasises how much poverty and social injustice are core themes in the bible.  It gave me further reason to question why many of the Christians I knew who were most vocal about ‘biblical preaching’ hardly seemed to mention these issues.

Despite the fragility of my student faith, I had met someone who had a pocket bible with a zip-up black leather cover. To use a biblical term, I coveted it. It turned out these versions were not cheap, but flush with some Christmas money, I invested £42 and bought my own. 

Great investment

It turned out to be a great investment.  Today, that same bible, now battered, bruised, full of stains, creases and crinkles, is still the same one I read every day. It has been my constant companion for 32 years.

And as I only realised the other day, this coincides with the same years that I have been in paid work with people affected by homelessness. This bible, whose zip no longer works and is held together with gaffer tape, seems an appropriate illustration of my journeys in faith and work.

Social work placement

And in the summer of that same year, I started a nine-week social work placement with the Shaftesbury Society in Camberwell, south London, in a direct access hostel for 22 young homeless people.

That placement was a great experience and I learnt a lot very quickly. I still have the placement journal I had to keep which is an amusing record of the daily dramas that took place.

On one overnight shift, I was doing the paperwork to book in a new resident when the front doorbell sounded. You were not supposed to leave residents alone in the office but no one else seemed to be around and the bell kept ringing, so I quickly left the young man alone and went to open the door.

In the 60 seconds I was gone, he leaned over the desk and took my car keys out of coat pocket. To be more accurate, they were my Mum’s car keys to her Fiat Uno that I had borrowed. 

Joy ride

I came back in the office and completed booking in the resident without knowing anything had happened.  The shift was a 25 hour sleep-over shift (they were a killer) and I did not realise anything was amiss until the next morning when I left to go home. I reached in my coat for the car keys and couldn’t find them. I panicked.

When I checked, my Mum’s car was outside but it was parked in a different place and at a strange angle to the kerb. One resident tipped me off by saying ‘Have a look in that bush’. There, to my massive relief, I found the car keys.

What later emerged was that a group of our residents had spent the night joy riding around central London in my Mum’s car before coming back and chucking the keys in the bush. The petrol was empty but the car seemed fine (perhaps a little strained).

As I drove home I decided that the car’s nocturnal adventures were not something my Mum needed to know about…

Christian companionship

Shaftesbury was a Christian organisation and I really appreciated the way faith was integrated in the day to day work. We prayed for each resident at every shift handover and on those long, lonely night shifts where one staff member had to stay awake, my new bible was a great companion.

I vividly remember reading passages at 3 or 4am (the toughest hours) when the Holy Spirit really brought Scripture alive to me: it really did bolster and resource me for the work to which I knew I was called.

Today

And right up to today this same bible comes with me every day to work because at Hope into Action we pray and reflect on Scripture every day.

This morning my colleague Stephen Brown led us in a great reflection on Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus in Luke 19. He got to think about the story in a fresh and personal way: what ‘trees’ do we need to climb down from in order for Jesus to come and be with us?  Its one example of the inexhaustible treasures that can be drawn from the storehouse of scripture.

Light to our path

It saddens me that many individuals and organisations have moved away from being consciously inspired by Scripture.  We should not give up reading it – and allowing it to read us. Of course there are many passages which are confusing and difficult but it is the richest treasure house, full of wisdom, inspiration and guidance.

It is a light to our path (Psalm 119:105) because it points to the one who is the Light of the world. The one who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.