I think that the lecture I heard said that people that are of middle socioeconomic status are 2 events away from being homeless (maybe it was 3, but I’m pretty sure it was 2). It could be an illness and a lost job. I could be a death in the family and a natural disaster. Whatever it is, most people in the middle are unknowingly teetering precariously at such a status. That puts things in perspective a little more. It’s not impossible to become homeless—you don’t have to be a drug addict or teenage runaway to end up there. All that needs to happen is a series of unfortunate events.
A homeless man that went to Cross and Crown (an inner city ministry in Oklahoma City) a lot, got frostbite on his legs the other night and they had to amputate from about mid-calf down. So, the man was already homeless, and now he has to deal with losing his feet. How is he supposed to find a job in the midst of this?
A woman came into Cross and Crown to get a prescription filled for her husband (he was at work). They had become homeless the day before. We prayed for her and told her where to go to get the prescription filled for free and then gave her some food. There are special bags of food for the homeless there, full of food that doesn’t need to be cooked and cans that have tops that can be popped off.
I did an ER rotation in clinical last week, and it was interesting to see what the years of work had done to some of the people. Some of them were so cynical and didn’t seem to really care anymore. A lot of the people that came in were on Medicaid or had no insurance and one of the PA’s and a nurse really were upset that these people should receive care too. I understand where they’re coming from, I guess. They’ve been working there for years, and they see people come in that are not having an emergency but care is free at the ER and they can’t turn anyone away, and they see the taxes taken out of their paycheck every week after they have worked really hard and they don’t think that it’s fair. And it’s not. But it’s not fair for the person that’s on Medicaid either.
I know that some people on Medicaid aren’t trying to get off of it. I know that there are people that take advantage of the system. But I also know that there are people on Medicaid that are working hard just trying to make end’s meat. I know that there are people that have made bad financial decisions in their lives and have dug themselves into holes, but maybe they didn’t have a daddy teaching them all about that stuff as they grew up. Or maybe their dads taught them their bad habits. I’m sure that they would prefer not to be on Medicaid, if they too could have a nice job where they could make enough money to not have to choose between paying for electricity or medical insurance or food. But many don’t know how. They’ve never been taught. And so they live the only way they know how.
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God is faithful.
4 comments:
I respect your opinion because you see things differently than I do. I just wonder from a Christian's perspective, how does free will play into all of this?
(This does exclude all the people who are mentally incapable.)
Isn't God the overriding X-factor in the equation, believer or not, that puts the advantage in the individual's hands to overcome what ever obstacle they face?
This is just a thought that isn't meant to be argumentative. What do you think?
I believe God is going to be with us in whatever circumstances and give us what we need to get through it, but I don't necessarily believe that means that God is going to drastically change the situation, because I think that our idea of what we need is often quite different than God's idea. So, I guess my point is that at any time we could end up being homeless too, so we as a society and Christians need to be a little less judgemental of the homeless. I think that we tend to think that they got themselves into the mess and they should get themselves out. While I know that sometimes it is people's bad decisions that lead them down roads, it is not always just a bad decision that gets people in situations. It could be someone else's bad decision (because of free will) that had a bad effect on someone else's life. And if no one has ever taught you a better way of doing something, then although, you have free will, you're not going to know about all the different possibilities that exist. God is the "overriding X-factor" but physical circumstances aren't always going to be changed in this life, but what will be changed are attitudes and the amount of hope and peace we have in Christ. Did I address what you were talking about?
As always I appreciate your comments. Faith that can mobe mountains is faith that can do anything.
I think you made a great summary with:
"But the problem is that the typical church-goer wants to go and sit on a pew 2-3 times a week and maybe do a service project here and there, but we certainly don't want to get involved in something that is going to deprive us over our precious free time and alone time."
A great focus should be placed on Christians to be "Christians" and not pew fillers.
Enjoyed the though
yeh that should be move mountains. lol.
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