A friend just sent me a link to TheHomelessGuy, a blog that is updated frequently from a public library in Nashville. Its author, Kevin Michael Barbieux, has spent the last twenty years in "various degrees of homelessness — a rather large grey area of experience" and now uses his site as a vehicle for providing a first-hand account of the homeless experience and for combating stereotypes.
I just spent more than an hour digging through his archives, amazed by it all. I especially appreciate his patience and kindness when answering questions from readers. He speaks in a voice of Christian charity that I hear too seldom here in evangelical suburbia. For example, this is how he responds to someone asking for advice in dealing with a homeless friend who is sleeping on the reader's couch:
There have always been those who just cannot, for various reasons, sync with the rest of society. Back when we valued extended families, there was always a place for these people. There participation in providing for the family was always limited, and yes, they were carried more they carried, but they still had a value, and a place, in the family. Today, we shuffle our kids off to whatever event they want, just to get them out of the house, and we put our elders in "homes" so that they won't inconvenience our aspirations. This certainly can't be what is right, or best, especially in the Christian context. But, given the state of our current society, where competition to make a decent living is so intense, it's difficult to do otherwise.
Help your friend to grow as he becomes ready to do so. Work with him. Don't neglect him. If he sees that you accept him for what he is, he will feel loved by you, and in return he will love you. And we all want to do things that please the ones we love. If, in this context, he sees that you want him to grow, he will.
Thanks for writing.
1 Comments:
There is much wisdom in the words you just quoted, wisdom is often found through pain, pain reduces us to the things that are really important in life.
Amy
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