“JESUS REPLIED, ‘YOU MUST LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, ALL YOUR SOUL, AND ALL YOUR MIND.’ THIS IS THE FIRST AND GREATEST COMMANDMENT. A SECOND IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT: ‘LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’”
MATTHEW 23:37-39
Like most of us, I did not feel so badly about my involvement with the homeless. On many occasion I would give them a few bucks if I saw them on the street corner holding the sign that we are all too familiar with, and then roll the window back up and move on. I read the books about them, might even have shed a tear from time to time, or gone as far as to hold them in my prayers on occasions.Hey, that is more than most people do, right? It was as if the mental comparison to the level of activity for most other people helped rationalize what token assistance I was giving.
The first shock to my system came about 3 years ago…I was on my way to a meeting and saw someone on the corner asking for help. On the bottom of the sign that he held up was written Ephesians 2:8-10. I jotted this down to study later, pulled out a 20 dollar bill and motioned him over to my car. What was different about this than the times I had done this in the past was what he said when he took the money from my hand. He looked me in the eye and said “It will never be enough.”What? Doesn’t he know the role that he is supposed to play in this little exchange? A very humble nod or bow followed by a “thank you so much sir” is the standard script.
The second shock came a couple of Christmas’s ago when I read the book Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (check it out if you haven’t already). Around the same day that I finished it, I received a texted picture from a friend of mine of her working in a homeless shelter on Christmas Eve. The smile on her face was one of deep and rich happiness.
It was the third shock that when it hit, reshaped something inside of me…
It was a cold February night in downtown Greensboro, NC. Some friends of mine asked me if I would like to assist in serving a meal at a homeless shelter to which I gladly agreed. We arrived at 5 p.m. to prepare for a meal that was served at 7 p.m. The homeless shelter was a series of locked doors.Outside the kitchen and serving areas was a smoking area, and beside it was a large room where the people staying there would hang out and watch TV. When I arrived at 5 p.m. they already had several people in the kitchen setting up so I decided to check out the place. What I did not know until later into the night was that I was not wearing anything to distinguish me as one of the group doing the cooking, so those that did not know me assumed that I was a resident of the shelter. This turned out to be a huge blessing for me.
When I exited the “safety” of the kitchen and entered the “depths of the great unknown,” the first thing that caught my eye was a big screen TV in what looked like a common room where around a hundred residents hung out. Andy Griffith was on the big screen TV so what American male born in the South in my generation can resist the pull of Andy, Barnie, and Opie on TV? I hit the buzzer by the door and entered the room. What I experienced in the room were lessons that I will never forget.
Since I was new to the place I entered the room surveying the layout, and since they did not know me, it was obvious to all that I was unfamiliar with what to do. Immediately I received several offers to get a plastic chair from the stack for me to sit in. Many made eye contact and motioned for me to take the seat next to them, and the ones that I was fortunate enough to visit with would ask in a warm and genuine way how I was doing. You see, I was the new guy in an unfamiliar place, and they were doing what they could to ease my burden even if only a little. They were giving what they could.Can this possibly be what Jesus meant in Mark 12:43-44? “I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all the others have given. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”
- I met a woman with 3 kids who was trying to find a way to get back into their lives.
- I met a man who had lived in the woods or under bridges for 9 years.
- I met several that were former Marines. One of them wore a yellow dress shirt, an orange tie, and a purple sport coat. To most people his dress would appear very odd or tacky but he had the top button of his coat fastened and he kept touching it at regular intervals just like you see the wealthy businessman or stars do in the finest of tux at formal occasions. This former Marine wore his clothes with pride and I was proud of him.
- I heard of a man staying there that was a professor but could not hold his life together when his wife and kid died in a car accident.
- I met a man named Reggie that had lived homeless for the most part of 20 years. He never knew his Dad, and his Mom passed away when he was an infant. From there he bounced between boys’ homes until he went to live with his Grandmother. She died when he was 16, so he hit the road.Reggie told me that hope is something that must always be present.
What started out for me as a way to spend 2 hours prior to serving a meal turned out to be an education of a lifetime. I realized that although I had much to give they never asked me for anything and although they had very little, they gave what they could without being asked.
On a cold February night in Greensboro, NC, I finally stopped long enough to look in the eyes of the homeless…
I saw them, and therefore they saw me, and we are the same.