Thanksgiving with the Homeless

Today Jessica and I had the joy of being table host for a homeless ministry outreach just south of the city of Dallas. It was a cool experience. Homeless ministry for whatever reason has always been a hard one for me. It is an area where honestly my heart has not been very Christ like. For a good bit of my life, even as a believer, I have not had compassion towards those who walk the streets, live in boxes, and beg for money. When I would look at them, it would be rare if compassion would arise.

I would justify my lack of love by pointing out that they were probably just going to use the money for beer, crack, or worse. And the worse thing I could possibly do would be to enable a self destructive pattern. Yet my heart was devoid of love for these people. I had seen enough bad cases where to me every scenario might as well have been the worse case scenario.

The story of the Good Samaritan tends to be a very convicting one when I think about this issue. There is a Greek word that is used to describe the compassion that the Good Samaritan had on the hurt person. The only other time I believe this is used is in the story of the Prodigal Son. The Father had the same compassion on the lost son returning home. With that same intensity of love is how we are to love one another and a hurting world. With the love of the Son of God.

As I already said, this is an area where I do fully recognize that my heart is in the right place. Jessica has so amazing in praying for me in this area and been a great encouragement. Multiple times she has found a way for us to go and love on the homeless of Dallas in an effort to bring the Kingdom to them and at the same time to a dark area of my heart. Today was nothing short of amazing and beautiful.

Jessica had put so much effort into making sure our table looked beautiful with a nice red table cloth, beautiful dishes, a great center piece, and everything that would be needed. The ministry host brought some food over and a group of homeless people sat down. We began to talk with them and I felt particularly drawn to one of the guys. We spoke incredibly well and was a smart guy. He told me the story of his failed career and how life had brought him to where he was at. In listening to his story, maybe for the first time, I did not think that he was lying. He talked about how Jesus was changing his life and through the local state services, he had finally got off the streets and was in an apartment about 15 miles north of the city. There are apparently a few job opportunities that might be opening up for him as well and someone was kind enough to buy him a cell phone.

The thing that was the most convincing was the look in his eyes. It was a look of HOPE and JOY. The streets create a look on peoples faces. I have seen it enough to be able to recognize it. It is one of defeat, brokenness, desperation, and pain. It was something I have honestly never seen on the face of a homeless person. His eyes were filled with life. Most of the experiences I have had with homeless people in the past have been ones of a guy begging for something with one of the normal stories. This man was not asking for anything. He was happy. He was full of life. He had met Jesus and was marching towards a restored life. It was nothing short of beautiful.

I was thankful for the opportunity to be a blessing to people today but even more than that, I am thankful that the love of Jesus is changing my own heart, renewing it in His image, and creating a sense of compassion for the hurting of the entire world.