by Matthew Smith

A few years ago I spent three life changing months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  It’s safe to say that without that one summer and the thousands of experiences it provided I would not be a missions pastor.  One of the memories, which is as fresh in my mind as the coffee I’m brewing right now is fresh in the room, was with a little boy on a street corner.  He was one of thousands and why I sat down with him I’ll never know,  but I did.  My good friend Alex sat down with us and translated a conversation about life, hurt, joy, hopes and dreams.  As we sat there talking it felt like the whole world walked by.  Men in business suites.  Moms carrying kids.  Couples in love.  They were all going somewhere - I don’t know where - work or home or the market, maybe.  They were all busy, just like I am always busy.  It occurred to me, there is no not being busy.  The question on the street corner was and still is and will forever be, what am I busy with?  Of all the places in the world and with all the people, it was there with that little kid that I knew it would be right to busy myself with justice.

When I went home that night I picked up guitar and wrote a song.  It’s about a kid on a street corner watching the world pass him by.  It’s a song to be sung from a weary, street worn soul.  It’s meant to have a hundred voices in the chorus so it shouts loud like a hundred kids all crying at once, “if you’re too busy to help me find my life… I’ll just fade into the night.”

Last Sunday at Antioch my good friend Lauren Edwards did the most incredible job ever singing the song.  It was perfect, and I want to share it with you all as way of an invitation.  What is your story?  Where is your street corner?  Have you ever, would you ever, make yourself available to the God things going on all around?  It might look nothing like dirty gutters and little kids and that’s okay, that is my story.  It will look like your story, brand new and unknown and all your own and it’s a story I’d love to hear!

Happy listening!

Special Music :: Lauren Edwards from Antioch Church on Vimeo.