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Hey, guys! I promise I won't make a habit out of it... But this. This is a big reason why I and Isaac do ProjectWatpad.
Yes. I am publishing two messages in a row.
I had a crazy experience this Saturday morning.
My dad recently moved into an old house we haven't lived in for years, in a town called Oak Hill, and I go there on the weekends now. I don't know the town at all, so today I decided to try to walk to a park. I walk out of my street onto Main Street, which amazes me because there are at least 6 speeding cars on the road at all times, in comparison to the long, empty roads of Fayetteville.
Google Maps sucks. It told me to walk out straight on Main Street for over a mile, and then what do I hear out of my pocket?
"GPS Signal Lost."
"Ok..." I looked around. I walked to the nearby gas station and ask for directions.
I couldn't understand the lady's accent, so I thanked her for the directions and left.
There was a man picking up cans in a carwash not too far from there. I asked him for directions.
He had a flaky white beard that went all the way around his head, looping around his ears. He had one huge tooth that was intact, and the rest of them had been broken off at their root. His head was topped by a "Vietnam Veteran" ball cap. He had a shirt that looked like an overcaffeinated child had taken a Crayola box to it. He had a smell when I got closer to him that made me try not to be sick. It was clear that he was a homeless man, something I wasn't familiar with in my small town.
He looked around and pointed me a certain way, then he changed his mind and pointed me to another road.
I asked him if I could buy him something from the gas station I just passed. He declined and told me that I was a young man and that I might need the money for something.
And I invited him to church (we were only a few yards away from it at the car wash), hoping maybe he would come and we could help him with food or water or shelter, and I'm not real sure what his answer meant.
We got into a conversation. He went on to a lot of things, and I'm not sure if I was able to get too many words in.
He talked about the poor people in town. He told me that nobody helps the poor people. He told me that a lot of people will make fun of the poor people in this town, including himself. He talked about every facet of the town, the local government, the churches, everyone around him and nobody helps the poor people.
He told me that there was a woman he'd seen that had three kids. One was almost in the street, one was five feet behind another car, and one looked like he was dying, and nobody helped her. He told me how there was a friend of his who lived "around" the building next to us who everyone mocked and got away with it because he couldn't understand that they were calling him some kind of cartoon character with his nickname.
He told me how he'd been on that street since before they put pavement on the sidewalk, and he's seen the drugs ruin the neighborhood.
He said everyone likes to assume that the poor people around there are all drug addicts. I've seen a lot of drug addicts, and it was clear that that man was clean. He said nobody likes to help the poor people because everyone just assumes they're all drug addicts.
He told me that he believed in Jesus and he said everyone around here is "Christian" but it's a shame how nobody helps anyone. He said religion to him is helping other people.
I couldn't believe what he said next. He looked at my T-shirt I got from church and said: "You're a Christian boy, ain'tcha?" I nodded.
"Well, you can change this world ya know! It doesn't have to be like this."
You can change the world through simple actions of love and through Jesus Christ. Even this homeless man who had nothing to himself but a job waving a sign and an old truck parked in the pharmacy, he knew this. And he held his head high. He wasn't some crackhead who earned his fate through stupid living (And trust me, there's more than a few of those where I live too.) This was a man who risked his life for my country as a marine, supposed to be the most respected type of man in our culture, and his own town repaid him by spitting on him and mocking him for being less fortunate.
I walked home enraged at Oak Hill. How hypocritical of any human being to judge someone. How cruel and stupid to treat someone like less.
But then I had to point that finger at myself. Sure, I hadn't been disrespectful to him, but how had I helped the homeless before that?
Nobody helps the poor people.
I realized something. We all say we want revival, but God wants it to be done a certain way.
Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
Proverbs 31:8-9 KJV
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
Deuteronomy 15:7-8 KJV
Look over that again. The verse didn't say "It would be-eth really cool if thou could not shut thine hand from thy poor brother." It said, "Thou shalt not". We are not asked but demanded to do more than what we have done. And isn't everyone on this earth our brother and sister? Is there anyone Jesus hasn't prepared adoption papers with His blood for?
God has asked all of us to be merciful to the widow, the fatherless. Many of Jesus' miracles were directed toward beggars. And if we showed love to the lowest, the people on the street, many with broken minds, then the world can see that we are making a movement that's different.
Nobody helps the poor people.
What if we did.
That would make a rippling effect throughout our society. If we defended the honor and pride of the downtrodden. If we refused to assume every person who doesn't have a house is a druggie or dealer that deserves it. What if they thought that about you?
But what if we treated everyone equal like God said? And what if we based our actions on the seriousness of others needs?
That means that when you see a homeless man sitting at McDonald's, you can offer him a burger, invite him to church like you would anywhere else, and take a genuine interest in who he is. I bet he'll want to talk to someone. I bet that what fears we have that make us not do that are stupid.
That means that when someone tries to pass a law that oppresses the poor in your government, you protest it. If you live in a Democracy that has any chance of listening to your protests at all, then an unchecked sinful action of the government is a weight on your back too.
That means we can't sit on our butts and remain ignorant about an issue that lives in every small town and every mega-metropolis. We need to get EDUCATED on the people who suffer around us. What do they need, how does it feel to be homeless, do they feel like failures, and what that means to feel like a failure. We need to understand suffering goes on beyond our air-conditioned walls and fences.
Your Mission:
Learn as much as you can about poverty, homelessness, and general. Then see what you can do about it, because you can do something meaningful about it, and they do it.
Why am I focusing on homeless people, you ask? Because the religious world goes after the opposite. The denominations are running a rat race to claim people that "matter", people that will do good for them. Many people won't go to church because they can't pay tithes and they are afraid others will judge them!!
But to God, even the crackhead matters. The homeless man matters. The prostitute matters. The least popular kid in your school matters. That person we deem as insignificant, stupid, wrong, weird, etc; They. Matter.
Some resources to help with your mission, if you feel led by God to do it:
This website gives awesome advice on what to do and NOT DO for homeless people, and how to be safe (Even though we have to treat all people without judgmentalism, we still have to keep ourselves safe!)
https://redeeminggod.com/10-dos-and-donts-in-loving-homeless-people/
This is an interview from a once homeless person about why many do not go to shelters, for good reasons.
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166666265/why-some-homeless-choose-the-streets-over-shelters
If you do do the research, I want to say thank you. Simply being more educated can help us to help others better, and thus change the world. But it takes more than knowledge. It takes action. So what can you do?