Homelessness, Prayer, Etc...
Today at the Rescue Mission, I introduced myself to the man sitting behind me in the chapel. He was in his sixties as far as I could tell and he carried the distinctively haggard and frail look of a person who is no stranger to life on the streets. I didn't really catch this man's name even though he repeated it once to me because he spoke in a exhaustedly hushed tone that bore more witness to the difficulty of trying to stay warm and fed in these freezing winter months. In his eyes were a sincere sense of sorrow and, as he motioned for me to come closer so I could hear what he had to tell me, his words were simple: "Pray for us all." he said, "We really need it."
Thinking back on this evening, I've been thinking about two things:
First, when we encounter the needy in our lives, why is our first reaction to avoid eye contact and shuffle by as if they don't exist? Why do we intrinsically dehumanize these people who are so similar to us in so many ways? I'll admit that this is often times my reaction although I am working hard for it not to be. As Jim put it this evening (and I paraphrase), "It is absolutely appalling to me that, in any urban environment, people can be allowed to die of hypothermia." Have we lost our sense of community so much so that we fail to see ourselves or God in the eyes of the drunk in his sleeping bag or the meth addict coming down after a rough couple days? I hate to over dramatize the problem and say that the poor aren't being cared for by anyone. This simply wouldn't be true. The truth is, however, that the needy in our society are not receiving enough care or compassion. I think this is something that we need to all pitch in on in our own ways in our own time. I now know that I can completely make a person's day and be the example of Christ to them by doing them a very small and seemingly insignificant favor every now and then.
Secondly, I've been thinking about the reality of prayer. This topic has been coming up in my life a lot in the last couple weeks and is something that I'm really excited about. It's so easy to fall into a pattern where we pray just to get out things we need to say and to ask for things that we think would be nice to have. I have been noticing lately that prayer is much, much more than that. God really listens to everything we have to say. I've seen evidence of so many answered prayers this week, I can't believe there was a time when I would have thought of these things as coincidences or luck. If you are asking for something that is in accordance with God's heart, It will happen. Prayer can hardly every be done with complete confidence that the thing you are praying for will happen, but by being connected to God through his word and through prayer itself, I have found that I am able to get a little closer to seeing things God's way and in that I can have more faith that the things I am praying for are the right things TO be praying for. Beyond just the petitionary side of things, prayer is also thanking God for things, talking to Him about things, and simply listening. I thought I'd add that little note so that I don't present a skewed view of what prayer really is and what the Bible says about it. I'm not bible scholar (or not a very advanced one at least), so I would encourage anyone who reads this to take the things i have to say with a grain of salt, but these were just a couple of things that I was thinking about today. Please pray for our brothers and sisters on the streets in the weeks to come. They need it.
Thinking back on this evening, I've been thinking about two things:
First, when we encounter the needy in our lives, why is our first reaction to avoid eye contact and shuffle by as if they don't exist? Why do we intrinsically dehumanize these people who are so similar to us in so many ways? I'll admit that this is often times my reaction although I am working hard for it not to be. As Jim put it this evening (and I paraphrase), "It is absolutely appalling to me that, in any urban environment, people can be allowed to die of hypothermia." Have we lost our sense of community so much so that we fail to see ourselves or God in the eyes of the drunk in his sleeping bag or the meth addict coming down after a rough couple days? I hate to over dramatize the problem and say that the poor aren't being cared for by anyone. This simply wouldn't be true. The truth is, however, that the needy in our society are not receiving enough care or compassion. I think this is something that we need to all pitch in on in our own ways in our own time. I now know that I can completely make a person's day and be the example of Christ to them by doing them a very small and seemingly insignificant favor every now and then.
Secondly, I've been thinking about the reality of prayer. This topic has been coming up in my life a lot in the last couple weeks and is something that I'm really excited about. It's so easy to fall into a pattern where we pray just to get out things we need to say and to ask for things that we think would be nice to have. I have been noticing lately that prayer is much, much more than that. God really listens to everything we have to say. I've seen evidence of so many answered prayers this week, I can't believe there was a time when I would have thought of these things as coincidences or luck. If you are asking for something that is in accordance with God's heart, It will happen. Prayer can hardly every be done with complete confidence that the thing you are praying for will happen, but by being connected to God through his word and through prayer itself, I have found that I am able to get a little closer to seeing things God's way and in that I can have more faith that the things I am praying for are the right things TO be praying for. Beyond just the petitionary side of things, prayer is also thanking God for things, talking to Him about things, and simply listening. I thought I'd add that little note so that I don't present a skewed view of what prayer really is and what the Bible says about it. I'm not bible scholar (or not a very advanced one at least), so I would encourage anyone who reads this to take the things i have to say with a grain of salt, but these were just a couple of things that I was thinking about today. Please pray for our brothers and sisters on the streets in the weeks to come. They need it.