Doing this on the street at times can be easier than doing it at home. But if we can't do it at home then it doesn't matter that we have done it on the street because it isn't truly genuine. This has been one of my hardest struggles.
I am reading this book called "But I have Called You Friends" by Mother Mary Francis a Poor Clare. It is a series of reflection on the art of Christian friendship that she gave to her sisters. She basically makes they statement that what is wrong with the world is that we have failed to be friends with one another. She defines friendship in 3 elements: esteem, respect, and affection. "There is no real love of any kind that is not rooted in friendship"
Mother Mary Francis breaks down the work respect to is Latin meaning re and spectare.
"We have spectare, 'to look' and re, 'again'. The real meaning of the word 'respect' is 'to look again'; and I say more particularly to look again and again. When we do not have friendships with people, this is basically the reason. We haven't looked again and very specifically, we haven't looked again and again and maybe again. Often we do not like the first look when we look at people, and so-- that's it. We just turn off and decide, without pondering deeply. We have an unfortunate psychological reflex in this area: we look once, say 'no like', and decide without reasoning about it, of course, that we will have a different kind of relationship than friendship with this person."
After I read this I just couldn't believe how guilty of this I was. This book is changing my prespective on what true friendship is and how i am truly called to love. She quotes Charles Lamb "that it is impossible to dislike anyone whom we really know." Mother Mary Francis states: the trouble is we think taht we know people, and we really don't know them at all.
It is amazing to stop and think about that. How many times do we make assumptions about other people? How many times do we listen to what others say about people instead of just actually encountering that person ourselves. How many times do we think we know why that person is acting this way or that way, but the reality is we are wrong.
I see this a lot with the homeless I encounter. When I talk to a non-homeless person they have all these assumptions about homeless people or our media has filled us with certain assumptions about homeless people. As I encounter the homeless I realize how wrong they are.
These men and women are just everyday people like you and me like to think we are. They have had a string of bad luck and no one to support them through it. No one to look at them again and again and telling them that they are worth loving just because they are. Instead, we look at them and think how unproductive to society they are and we just need to get rid of them. A person's worth has apparently become with how useful they are. This is sad.
How many times have you done something or said something and later regreted it? What if no one forgave you? What if no one helped you through that time of dispair? What is no one was there to tell you that they still love you?
The homeless are a very vulnerable population and need love just like you and me. They need God just like you and me, but if all we do is throw change at them and fail to truly look them in the eyes what good does that do? Our dignity comes from God because God created us in His image and likeness. We cannot continue taking that away from people by ignoring them just because it makes us uncomfortable or do not like what we see at a glance. No one sits in a classroom as a child and says I want to be homeless when I grow up.
It is time to look at them with compassion. It is easy to just write them off because no one cares about them, but I care. I am part of a beautiful community of Missionaries that care. It is okay to care. It is okay to love.
We had the wonderful opportunity of sharing our blessings with them last week.
We had our first Thanksgiving meal with the homeless. It was beautiful to watch unfold because these people are no longer strangers that I met, but they truly are friends that I love. We can't save them or change them that's God's job, but we can love them. We can look at them and let them truly look at us and share in what God has given us, Life.
May this thanksgiving you truly be thankful for all that you have even if you think it isn't much. There are many people not just in foreign countries, but right down the street that have nothing and no one.
Pray for them specifically Tom, Marty, Darell, and Dan.
Here is a video one of our missionaries made regarding the event: thanksgiving video
Also another note about friends my dear friend April Dolezal just got engaged to Mr. Dan Sobota. Please pray for them and their engagement! :)
