Generations: Columbia, Missouri and Homeless

Fairly recently, I've got the chance to help lead a bible study and prayer group with my dad for a homeless shelter. It's been a eye-opening experience to share time with men and women who ride the rails and roads for their existence. Some of them know God more powerfully and intimately than I think I ever will be. Those "road warriors" are amazing people: divorced, addicted, out-of-work, mentally unbalanced, downtrodden. If Jesus loved tax collectors, prostitutes, and the homeless, surely I should be able to also, right? Well…you don't know how to love people until you share the love of their burdens with them. I've found that out at this shelter.

One night late in the summer, one older gentleman let's call him "John Smith" rolled through. He was 80-some odd years old, and spent much of his life on the road, hitchhiking from odd job to odd job. Yet he knew about Jesus Christ, and the little things he knew. We spent the balance of that evening eating day-old cookies and donuts donated from the local Hy-Vee, and sharing stories. My stories seemed to pail in comparison. It was so humbling to be with a guy who had nothing but somehow had everything you'd ever need in life.

You wonder what it must be like for these people; not knowing where they'll be living for the next few days, no clue as to where the next meal is…the next job…the next bed…the next friend…

That idea of being homeless is a powerful one. Even though many of us haven't been physically homeless, I wonder who many of us have been emotionally or spiritually homeless. If I was being honest, I have to admit that I've been. In fact, I've spent a sizeable piece of my life that way. On some levels, I can relate to the homeless person that way. An overwhelming emptiness….

As my dad and I were leaving and closing the shelter down the next morning, we gave John a ride out of town. He wanted to hitchhike down to Columbia, Missouri. So we did like he asked, and dropped him off in the middle of the road outside town near a highway interchange. We asked him "do you WANT to do it like this" and he said "yeah". Here's an 80-year old man tryin' to hitchhike down to Missouri in the rain with only two bags of belongings to his name. wow. I never forget that feeling. It's like Jesus says "if you do it for the least of these, so then also do you do it for Me". I sat there with my dad, feeling so guilty for our semi-cushy middle class lives. I'm so thankful meeting John. He's a wonderful guy, and I hope he gets to see God in person some day. I think I caught a glimpse of His glory when we left John by the road that rainy Saturday morning.

My first question of this is…have you ever been homeless? How about in your heart? I've been there. You don't know which end is up. Everything in life, so it would seem, has failed you. That's the trap…to create the illusion in one's mind that life is all about you…. That night at the shelter John gave us a glimpse of himself and God's work in his life, whoever radically different it was from mine or my dad's at the time. It's about 250 miles to Columbia, Missouri from that Iowa highway where we dropped off him off that morning. Maybe a lifetime if you're walking in the rain..who knows… Have you ever been homeless? How about in your heart?