I eat like a homeless person, and I love it.

Bruce here. I've hacked into Jennifer's blog to post something. I want to share one of the ways Jennifer makes me proud.

Jennifer's friends might know that our church started a homeless ministry about a year ago. But, what few people know, is that shortly after the ministry started, Jennifer got the idea that one day a week she would cook dinners for the nine homeless people being served by the ministry. And she's continued that for about a year.

Every Tuesday, she cooks a big dinner. Most of it goes to the homeless people. She even packs the food up and drives it the mission. And some of it stays with us and becomes our dinner.

Moreover, she makes really good food for this ministry. In fact, the food is so good that I often joke with her that one of the things I appreciate about her ministry is that it means at least one day each week, I get to eat well.

It's sort of a joke because she does try to cook well for me other times. For example, a few months ago she decided to make Friday nights "guy food" nights. That's when I get some red meat, BBQ, or other guy food.

But, it's not completely a joke. It's true that I look forward to Tuesday night dinners. See, the Sabin family lives on a tight budget. We have vegetarian night, for example, not because we're trying to be healthy, but because meat is an expensive part of dinner. So, I look forward to Tuesdays because Jennifer makes sure the food she makes for the homeless is on the upper end of what she would ever make for our family.

And that's why I've hacked into her blog. I want to publicly praise Jennifer's Christlike attitude in this.

[Jesus] said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
                                                Luke 14:12-14 (ESV)

When it comes to charity, most people, if they give at all, give from their excess. We donate the older clothes that we don't want anymore, or that we outgrew. We have some money taken out of our paychecks because, we're assured, we'll never even notice it's gone. While all such donations can still help people, they don't represent our savior, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Php 2:6-8).

Jennifer is giving of herself, taking extra time to cook for 13 people (the 9 homeless and our family of 4), and then she delivers that food, every week. And, in that, she cooks some of the best food we'll eat all week. She doesn't combine vegetarian night with homeless ministry night. She truly gives her best to those who cannot repay her. And she has done this, week after week, since last Fall.

Few people know about this because she doesn't do any of this for her own glory; she does it out of her love for God. And that's why I am proud of her and have been blessed by her.

And while she wouldn't want the glory for this, I feel fine praising her in public. And while Jennifer might be embarrassed by this blog post, I'll gladly accept a little appropriate glory. After all, Solomon once advised young men to look for the woman who's character would bring him glory. The whole "Proverbs 31 Woman" passage hinges on its central thesis:

Her husband is known in the gates
   when he sits among the elders of the land.
                                               Pro 31:23 (ESV)

Tonight's mouth-watering baked chicken, seasoned beautifully,
served with twice-baked potato. Scrumptious.