Faith Like a Child

July 27, 2003

Category: My Life

So, we come home from church today, climb out of our car, open the back gate, unlock the door to the house, walk inside. For a few minutes, we talk about this and that—like usual. Absentmindedly, my wife looks out the window mid-sentence, gasps, and whispers, “Paul!,” pointing outside. There lying in the grass about 10 feet from the window, is a man fast asleep.

He’s homeless by the looks of his dirty clothing and shaggy beard. There’s a brown bag by his side. We stare and whisper, “What do we do?” Several thoughts begin to run through my head. ‘I’m a Christian… I should do something. But what? We just came home from church of all places. Is this a test?’

Meanwhile, our 3 year old daughter peeks up over the window sill to watch a squirrel. She jabbers about it and looks down, catching a glimpse of the man and says, “Look, there’s a man,” matter-of-factly. To her, the sight of a squirrel sitting on the fence and a man sleeping near the driveway are equally common occurences.

Standing at the kitchen sink, aimlessly scrubbing a pan, my thoughts wander down many paths. ‘Should I help him? What should I say? Is it dangerous having a stranger sleeping outside my house? If I give him something will he come back expecting more? Cash? Food? What food? A loaf of bread… maybe he just wants to be left alone.’

Caught in a circle of our own questions, we leave the man to his dreams for 10 minutes, curled up on his side. Before we decide to take action, he lazily gets up and wanders down the driveway. To our amazement, our daughter looks outside again and asks, “Where’s the man? I miss him. Where’s his home?” My wife’s comment was, “This helps me understand partly what was meant when Jesus said, ‘Let the children come unto me… for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ Mark 10:13-16 She showed us the simplicity that our “adult” faith lacks.

Have you ever had an experience with a homeless person?

Posted by pablohart on July 27, 2003 09:31 PM

Comments

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." --Matthew 8:20

and,

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' --Matthew 25:40

Posted by Nathan at July 28, 2003 10:47 AM

Some friends and I have had an opportunity to get out and meet some homeless people on the streets of Austin, Tx. I've only been out once with them, but from all the guys I met that day, I have to say that for the most part they were just normal guys who have had some difficulties in life and just ended up without a place to live. They definitely have problems, drug and/or alcohol addiction for the most part, but they really weren't hard to talk to or even scary.

My friends and I were there to find out what sort of things the homeless and street people really need. The thing that kept coming back was that they really didn't need food or even clothes for the most part, they could get those things at a lot of different places around town. The one thing that they really needed was for regular people like you and I to encourage them and let them know that we care. The best way to do that is to go and meet them, talk to them, and pray for them. You never know who you're going to meet out there. I challenge you to get together with some of your believing friends on a Saturday, hit the streets and when you see some guys hanging out under a bridge just go talk to them. Obviously you need to be careful and I wouldn't go out at night or in obviously dangerous places, but if it looks okay, just go talk to those guys.

One more thing, they can always use clean socks. Take a couple of packages of new tube socks with you and any one of those guys will be glad to talk to you.

Posted by les at July 29, 2003 10:23 PM

wow. that's great! thanks for the tip. i've done a little talking with the homeless as i used to live downtown. i agree, they're not scary--they're just human! in fact, most of the time, they're just the people in life who have been squashed down by society's cruelty.

but i appreciate your perspective. it's an excellent reminder, especially in light of this story!

humbly thankful,
paul

Posted by pablohart at July 31, 2003 10:23 AM

Add your comment