To be honest the first time I volunteered at the local homeless shelter I was little scared. Later I find my worries were needless and now I think every bit of misconception about homelessness needs to be wadded up and flushed down the drain.
This is what homeless is not. Homeless is not grungy dirty people bumming around a shelter for the free food and AC. Homeless people work. Lots of homeless people work and if they are not working our shelter requires that they ferociously look for a job unless disabilities or other life situations prevent them from doing so.
The shelter is not dangerous, I feel safer there than I do walking around in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The shelter is not full of manics. It is not full of undisciplined people. Some of them are getting up for jobs early in the morning. That is discipline.
Kids strap on their backpacks, their mother's hand them sack lunch's from the fridge and off they go to meet the bus.
Its Saturday and people drink their morning coffee while catching up on the news. Kids run around and they get a little noisy because they are kids and kids do that.
This is life at the shelter. Life in a dorm setting. Its not homey. Its not a motel. Its a place to sleep and to stay because there are no other options. There was no family. there were no friends. There was no one, but the shelter.
The goal of the shelter is not to provide long term housing but to help residents move toward long term goals of getting back on their feet.
And honestly my thoughts are so mixed whenever I walk out the shelter door. I leave to go home, my safe home. While behind me people for various reasons remain in that uncomfortable setting. I'm at a loss when I'm inside the shelter. How am I to relate? I who has never wanted for anything material? What can I say? What can I do?
The directions are easy. Countless times in Scripture God called for us to care for the poor. Care, go, and meet their needs. Not pray, but show them compassion. What did Christ do so many times on earth? He served with Christian compassion. Compassion that loved. Compassion that served. Compassion that did. Because Christ did not just be. He did.
I'm just a person. A person with some spare time. A person who needs to get out of her comfort zone. A person who needs to grow. A person who doesn't have it all together. A person who is still learning what following and loving God means. But I'm thankful the shelter is a tool God uses in my life to help grow me in so many ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment