Conversations With the Homeless.
Dennis Cardiff followed my blog recently and is my habit, I popped over to check his out as I do with all new follows. His link is above, I would encourage you to take a look.
The reasons for homelessness are as varied as the homeless themselves. Reactions to them range from pity to loathing, but the worst is probably blindness. I think there is very little in this world that is more horrible than to be invisible, to be unworthy of notice.
I don’t work downtown in a large city. I don’t often pass through the areas where the homeless congregate. I don’t see the same ones daily, or even weekly, but they are precious to me just the same and I look for them as often as I am near their “turf”. Many I will not see for months at a time, but I never stop praying and hoping for an opportunity to tell them one more time that they are something of value – that they are worth knowing.
Most of my contact comes when they are in jail. When there are not too many of them, I see them weekly. Right now there are 8 in the county jail (an 18 mile drive to nowhere, with only 2 visits per day allowed), so I am only seeing them every other week. I send them books and postcards (our facility doesn’t permit letters – they can send me a 6 page letter, but I have to reply on postcards that are less than 6 inches by 4 1/2 inches).
When people talk about prostitutes, homeless, addicts, bums, etc., I have at least a dozen names and faces in each category. This isn’t an undesirable mass of sub-human creatures. These are daughters, sons, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, parents, children, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, grandchildren – real people, with real stories and real value.
Take a chance. Do lunch with a homeless person. Make a new friend. Change a life – probably your own
