March 15, 2007
Homeless
Few possessions, eating out of trash cans and poor hygiene are often indicators of homelessness. I think those who saw the prodigal son during his pig-feeding days might well have thought him to be homeless. The young man wanting to “fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating” (Luke 15) sounds like New Testament dumpster diving to me. Local bystanders would never have guessed this young man had a home and a family waiting patiently for his return. Certainly there are many reasons for being homeless, but I believe some people are homeless by choice. I wonder how many people wandering the streets of the US are in reality just modern day prodigals who have yet to 'come to their senses'.
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3 comments:
Gail;
----After a number of these 2:00AM to 5:00PM six day week shifts, I'm wondering if maybe I need to come to my senses. But I haven't seen anything good enough in the dumpster lately. Oh well. Back to work.
I agree that in some cases the homeless need to come to their senses. Another thing is they’re in that shape because they are lazy, or it’s the way they want it. There are people who just plain prefer to be slothful. They don’t want to get a job in order to have a descent house or clothes. Some may not care whether they’ve had a bath all year long; it doesn’t mean anything to them. They need to take some responsibility for being homeless. Often the more we do for people, the more they will let us do. We need to help when help is needed, but first we have to discern when to help. Scripture says if a man doesn’t work he shouldn’t eat, but we don’t pay attention to that.
Aunt Cleo;
-----Frankly speaking, we no longer give enough attention to what the Word says, if we give any attention to it at all. The Bible gets ignored in our churches when it says to serve and please one another, and it gets ignored in our government where it calls for consequences to wickedness. Personally, I believe we are called to be our brothers' keepers in helping them to their feet, but we are not called to be the floor under their feet.
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