How often in life have you passed on by someone in need asking for help? The following is a short spiritual story I heard long ago that reminded me greatly of something I once used to do solely out of selfishness and ignorance.
“It was a Sunday morning and a very sunny day with not a cloud was in the sky. The attendees of an extremely large congregation began to arrive and head towards the large looming doors of their church’s massive structure. As each walked up its many steps, it was hard not to notice a vey disheveled and filthy homeless man who lay sprawled out on them with hands outstretched. One by one they passed on by this vagrant, many purposely avoiding walking near him at all. Plenty of parents even pulled their children back each time one of them attempted to greet this man in need. A couple of individuals eventually mustered enough courage to say hello but no one had a single bit of change to spare for this poor man. When everyone was finally seated in the great hall of this church, the homeless man walked in and headed straight to the front to sit down amongst the rest of the churchgoers. The ushers swiftly escorted him to the very back of the pews where there he tried to greet the others sitting nearby, which was met only with stares and dirty looks. As the morning announcements began to be read, one of the elders of the church said how excited she was to welcome in the new pastor for the first time. After she spoke his name, everyone rose to offer a warm greeting by their thunderous applause. Suddenly they noticed that soiled and grimy homeless man walking down the aisle again and their smiles quickly turned to angry frowns. “Why is this man ruining such a wonderful event?” could be read over many of their faces. But their angry faces all soon turned to ones of shame and sadness when the man walked up to the podium and introduced himself as their new pastor.”
While there are numerous accounts on the Internet arguing whether this is actually a true story or not, I choose to focus on what I believe to be more important here, which is the moral of the story. How many times have I throughout the course of my life avoided a homeless person for whatever the reason, even when I had some change to spare or a free smile to offer them? How many times did I make a judgment about them believing they were only going to buy some booze with any money I gave them? How many times did I say, “Get a job!” to one of them out of irritation and resentment? The answer to all three is definitely “countless”.
The more I’ve drawn closer to my Higher Power though, whom I choose to call God, the more I’ve seen how selfish and ignorant I once was towards those less fortunate. While I may not always have change or even any cash on me to spare, I do my best now to at least smile and say God bless to any of those who are homeless. In fact, I’ve personally spent time with many in various homeless shelters over the past few years where I’ve spoken my experience, strength, and hope in recovery from addiction.
It’s through those moments where I learned that a homeless person, or anyone else less fortunate for that matter is never beneath me. In fact, each is just as much of beautiful soul and a child of God as I am. Thank God I see that now and do what I can now to treat everyone equally by offering what I have, even if that sometimes is nothing more than a warm and loving greeting.
So the reality I see today anytime I come across a homeless person or someone less fortunate is that any could be one of God’s messengers and if that’s the case, I hope to never pass on by a single one of them ever again.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
You probably had the same experiences in Boston that I had in Chicago – it seemed that someone on every single corner had a story or a scam, or had a flat and needed 2 cans of fix-a-flat @ $9.99 a can, to make it to their dying aunt’s side in Peoria before tomorrow. People carrying children in grocery-store parking lots in 99-degree weather begging for money to “get groceries…” only to see them leave the store with cases of beer or half-gallons of cheap vodka. It made me sick…and pretty hard-hearted, especially since I was pretty broke myself, at the time.
Our church’s experience here in Springfield, both with serving at the homeless kitchen and working with the Rare Breed shelter for homeless youth, have changed my attitude. There are a lot of homeless people who are simply good-and-decent people who have hit a bad patch. As it’s often been said, “Most people are only one or two paychecks away from homelessness.”
Yes, that’s true I’ve seen a lot of scamming, but I’ve also learned that it’s not my place to judge how a person may spend a dollar I give them. Maybe they buy booze, maybe they don’t, maybe they buy drugs, maybe they don’t. I leave that up to God and continue to do what feels best and that’s to donate when and where I can. 🙂