Unable to close my eyes and not see homelessness all around me: whether in Austin, TX, or on the streets of New York, Los Angeles the city of angels, or on the streets of the city of brotherly love.
Yeah, homelessness in the wonderful country of ours.
This is not a putdown to any country anywhere, whether so called third world, second world or first world.
Poverty is a reality from the beginning of time.
Each of us can do our part to see others. Don’t ignore them.
Let us #serve others to the best that we can. It may seem #small in our eyes but is huge in God’s eyes and makes a difference to those we serve.
Poverty existed in Moses’ day. God commanded the people that during the harvests, they were to leave parts of the harvest for the poor, the widow and the orphan.
Poverty and homelessness existed in Jesus’ day, He saw them and made time for them, always exhibiting His love through His actions, not just hollow words or clashing cymbals that was more noise and less music.
Last Wednesday, the Lord again brought this epidemic of homelessness to my attention. As I was going into the store in the scorching heat of triple digits, I saw a man sitting on the ground. As I exited, I heard him call out to me, but I continued walking towards my car and got in.
As I got in, the Lord spoke to me: you know you heard him. So, I got out of my car and went back to him and acknowledged him, giving him what I could.
When I returned back to my car, I started crying and asked the Lord to forgive me and to help me in always seeing as He sees.
This reminded me about a women’s event that I attended on the 11th at Topgolf. I struck up a conversation with one of the servers who had the same name as my favorite mascot, Sebastian the Ibis and I told him so. We both laughed and he told me that he attended a college football game last year in Miami between the Miami Hurricanes and his former college. His team lost but he said he totally enjoyed tailgating because those in Miami take it to a whole ‘nother level! I knew exactly what he meant.
As I continued to talk to Sebastian, I told him about my experiences as a college student at The U. I learned that he was in his last year as a fellow studying nuclear medicine and his passion was to heal hurting people. I asked what he intended to do after, would he pursue private practice which could be more lucrative or would he align himself with a hospital. His choice was the latter.
I then asked him what would be done with the food that was left over from the event, would it be given away to the homeless and the needy? Sadly, he said due to FDA regulations, the food had to be thrown out since it had been out for more than two hours. He said he has spent many hours trying to change that. I asked him, if in the future, an organization told them to box up the food that was left over and they could take it with them, to later give out to those who needed it, was that a possibility? He did not know the answer, but for me, that is worth pursuing.
I found myself praying for Sebastian and that he would be directed by God in the direction that he should go. Sebastian expressed his thanks and then went his way to finish working and cleaning up with the rest of his co-workers.
No act of kindness is random. Let it be #intentionalkindness for God’s love to be seen and reflected in us.