homelessness and the depravity of selfrighteousness ..

there's a post sitting in the wings
i've deleted it more than once
i'll get to it
for now i'll say this : -

we're trying to open our doors to people who've been on the street all night so they can get hot drinks, hot food and a chance to sleep in safety for a few hours ..
generally-speaking the people i've approached on this are supportive
there are, however, one or two who have reservations ..
one objection that stands out is that we may well be enabling some of those homeless people who are addicted to drugs - giving them a place to recover, and then they'll be back at it that evening, again ..

i hear that

................ . . .. .     .......     . . .  . .    .

and then i walk out of who i am
and i try, try somehow to step into the shoes of a homeless person ..
not possible, really, until the day i learn what that life is like
   Jesus had to learn too, you know
   read Hebrews

but i try to think of what it must feel like to be on the street every night
and the more i do that
the more i realize what a horror-ible thing it must be
   even for those who ' choose ' that lifestyle, as one person said
   as if that means anything

you really think people choose to be homeless as if it was one of many choices they had loaid out before them, all lying there with equal weight ?   ?
really  ?

i figure some people get so tired of being hated-on because they're gay
or abused because they may not be as intellectually quick as others
or been sexually abused in their own homes, by family members
   sick stuff that
   makes me want to get violent ..
i figure those could be some reasons for leaving ' home ' and running away
into the streetlife, doing whatever it takes to stay alive, even to the point of selling your body ..
they chose that ??
or were they pushed  ?
   go read online about the LGBT kids that were berated and abused by their own families
   some of whom classify themselves as ' religious ' ( i've posted on that )

i think when i hear stuff like that it speaks to the heartlessness of us
and those things come from the mouths of self righteous religious people as much as from anyone else
sad
sick

i've been trying to understand what it must be like ..
night after night
trying to find a place to lie down where the cops won't spot me and run me off
or some resident who doesn't want to sully his neighbourhood

and that's after i've thought of the cold to come that night, and checked for rain ..
hopefully there's some food in my stomach to help my body make it through the night
especially in the cold months
    humans use more calories when it's cold, and food is a must or face hypothermia

of course a skunk could walk up and spray me
a dog could come looking for food in my stuff
or a rat
or someone looking for an easy takedown
   kicking my worn-out body in the process to make me stay down
or someone wanting sex, determined to take it any way they can

and then there's the general underlying knowledge that i'm not wanted here
noone wants homeless people in their town
they try to force them out
make them run to some other town
not my town
hurts the reputation
affects business ..

i'm just a bum
i'm not really of any value
i'm no good, that's why i was abused
i deserve this ..
i just want to die ..
i don't want to wake up tomorrow ..

and i heard that exact statement from the mouth of a young person just last night .. . .     .

no one deserves that
.. .. .. .. ...... .....   . .     .....    .  . . . . .     .

i live in a world and in a country where wealth is the image-marker
wealth drives who i am ..

poverty drives who i am

we've allowed the corporate world to use the media to indoctrinate us in that
   like the sheep we are
we have given over our conscience to the propaganda of the moneygrubbers
and fallen into a deep dark place
where sports stars and musicians and ceo's make the bulk of the money
and teachers and firefighters and nurses barely make it

we're upside-down

and we judge ..
and we're wrong
dead wrong

because any time we treat humans as if they're animals
chase them off
shout at them and tell them they're bums
shuffle them around like some cattle from pen to pen
town to town
any time we can want them gone from around us
invisible
then we're nazi mentality all over again
or slavery in another form
or no better than the indian culture that locks people into classes based on who their parents are

it's frustrating
and it makes me angry
   ( which happens to be the blog post in the waiting )

i'm angry that we think we get to rank
we get to classify
humans
based on whatever it is we want to use at the time ..
class
or the colour of a person's skin !
   - how absolutely inane ..
or whether they're from the north, or the south
what they do for a living
what religion ..

classify/allocate/rank ..
and the homeless always get to be the bottom-feeders

they are the scum of the Earth
just want to see them gone
so i don't even have to see them
invisible

there are older women
   with no where else to go
   dragging around all they own in this life in a cart
families
   with young children
mentally-challenged people
   who can't hold down a job for long because of the abuse they get from workmates
the depressing loss of any sense of self-worth ..
young people who do meth
   digging holes in their face
alcolholics
   trying to hide the truth from themselves
the truth that the world doesn't want them
it wants them gone
like stinking rotting garbage
beautiful people
lost
disoriented
broken down
abused
trashed
marginalized
animals ..

many of those people are ' normal ' by the way
i simply go to the challenged to make the point ..
... ..         .... .

the invisible
   ( go here to read more on that  http://asthekingdomturns.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-600-37-1-by-1-invisible-and-advent.html )

and you dare to judge them ! ?
you dare ?
how dare you  ?
or i  ?

if it was me
or you
on the street every night
maybe we'd be looking for liquor or dope to be able to cope
   just to cope
   or to belay the inevitable feeling of " i just don't want to wake up tomorrow "

how dare we judge them  ?

Jesus didn't ..
John 3 makes it clear that Jesus did not come to condemn people
but to rescue them ..

' rescue '
now there's a work for ya
as in help-up
as in " hey, i'm here, lean on me "
as in " i'm sorry; how can i help "
as in " here, let me .. "
... . . .   ..    .

lowly fishermen
despised tax-collecters
radical zealots
prostitutes
lepers
women with bleeding issues
and men with withered hands
and shepherds ..
all outcasts of the Law-abiders
all the scruff and scum of religious society ..

all followers of Jesus
.... . . .       .

i'm done !
i'm angry !
i am so done

i'm for those people
i champion their cause
i fight for them
i want to be classed with them
i want to be one of them ..
...   . . .      .

one of my aims is to document in video those people's stories
   as told by them
   their autobiographies ..
we would be amazed

we think we're so great because we pay a mortgage
is that what it's come to  ?
is that how you value a person  ?
is that how you value your self  ?
are you valued by your 3-bedroom house and car  ?
   ?

i have  a small picture of Dorothy Day pinned above my bed
i intent to add Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther-King, Nelson Mandela and anybody else i can find who gives their life to the marginalized
the despised
the rejected
   like Jesus .. Isaiah says he was despised and rejected ..

i've always pulled for the underdog
always looked to support the team that's running against the odds
i am an underdog
i struggle in underdogness
mine is to learn these people
understand something of their plight
try to get intimate with their life
and pull for the underdog as an underdog

i want them to know the love of Jesus
and i've come to the place in my life where the best way to do that
is to love them
with Jesus
for Jesus
for them

after all, my friend
they too are created in the image and likeness of God ..
...  .   .... .

tonight is the last of 2013 and the walk-in to 2014 ..
and i flatout cannot think of anything i'd rather do
than sharing a meal and talking with my homeless friends
   ( i made a special chicken soup for us  :)   )

wishing for them

hoping for them
blessing them
maybe this will be the year they get to be un-homeless
...
maybe this will be the year i get to become
homeless
with them
one of them
.. . . .        .

my example is Jesus
a homeless man, by the way

his love for humanity is boundless
and his love divides up into as many humans as there are
with 12 baskets left over ..

his love is what it's all about
and he defined it
perfectly
here ..

his life wasn't taken from him
he gave it
out of love
for us humans
for every human ever
for each human
for
me
and
you


i want to be crossed-out
i want to do like he did
i want that

i want to be him

shalom