One of my favorite songs...by Coldplay...it takes me places...I like to be taken by songs, moments, movies, poems, and just about anything creatively placed in my world...
but this past weekend someONE, and not someTHING, was unexpectedly placed in front of me...and that looks different.
let's be honest, we're often moved by the arts...but will they mold us? or shape us...as we shape them? It's the arts that are to provoke us to a greater good...to bring out an honesty in us that is often lost in our busy and redundant lives...but more often than not it is an unforseen conversation that makes life real again, and brings me to a true place of honesty with myself.
This past weekend that happened. I was introduced to an uncomfortable sort of person...one who needed money...but had a real story to tell. When we pulled up in front of the shack she rented a room from...it was a moment of poetry (which is often a sad reality) that imprinted my soul...a single mom...evicted...walking the streets...her baby with a friend, and no place to stay.
I felt helpless...and humiliated with the first thoughts that had come to my mind earlier..."here's just another person asking for money".
What can be done? I feel like this is an epidemic...people trying to raise children, one parent, no job...or two jobs...and nothing left for their kids. What can we do to fix this situation?
Thursday, May 24, 2007
...Fix You...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I did a fair amount of research on homelessness for a paper I was writing, and the statistics I found were troubling, to say the least.
- the average age of homelessness in America is 9 year old
- the fastest growing homeless demographic is single mothers with children
- if statistics remain at their current rates, 2007 will again see more incidents of child homelessness than abortion
What is a Christian to do?
I have no idea. Nothing I come up with is safe, easy, or practical.
Isaiah 58.6-7: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"
That's a scary segment.
"I was introduced to an uncomfortable sort of person...one who needed money"
question: Didn't you make a living asking for money?
..."here's just another person asking for money".
question: Do you think that is what people thought about you? Wasn't your goal of getting support to help people such as the woman you talked about? Did you help her?
heather, thanks for the post...
yes, we have been in that position before...and yes, it has been uncomforable at times....we did help the woman, and I hope she was encouraged by the time we spent together.
Post a Comment