Christmas Devotion - Day 7

Today's devotional is written by Jeff Kuhnhenn, Board President of The Field's Edge.

The Right Question

I grew up serving in soup kitchens every now and then, but I never really understood homelessness. It’s a difficult concept to grasp when you grow up with opportunities, a supportive family, and an emphasis on hard work. Why are they homeless? What did they do to end up this way? Why won’t they just get a job?

I saw a problem to be solved, not actual people. When I thought about homelessness, it was always in the abstract and collective—that faceless “homeless” group, as though all were the same. It was easier to ignore them, not prioritize them, and judge them when I looked at them this way.

Then I met Walker.

Walker was the first homeless person I actually got to know. I can still see the mixture of joy and a deep pain in his eyes during our first conversation. I see the shame he was trying to cover, much like the discomfort I vainly tried to conceal as well. But he changed my perspective over time as I got to know him, the good and the bad. He humanized the abstract concept of “homelessness” for me. I think deep down I was always scared of that happening because then I’d have to actually do something.

But that’s the nature of God. He lovingly presses into our fears to drive them out and replace them with His love, which calls us to action.  One experience with Him can change everything. That’s certainly true for me.

Now, when it’s cold outside and my first thought is that my Arizona blood can’t handle this anymore, I feel a gentle tug at my soul. I remember Walker standing in the ice and light snow, shivering, begging for a room in the crappiest, dirtiest motel just to get out of the elements for even one night. And when it rains and I happily thank God for such a precious commodity in this desert, it’s balanced almost immediately by the image of Walker soaking wet, looking at his few but precious possessions, trying to keep them from ruin.

Walker changed the way I see the world. He’s one of the main reasons I joined The Field’s Edge. Befriending him corrected many of my perceptions about homelessness and addiction. People struggle sometimes and it’s not always clear why. People earnestly try to change sometimes and still fail, yet it’s not always clear why. Walker loved God and he desperately wanted a better life. I know he has that now in heaven, but I regret the many missed opportunities I had to help him more while he was still here. 

I used to wonder what people like Walker did to become homeless. Now I think of John 9:1-5, where Jesus was asked a similar question about a blind beggar on the side of the road: What did he do?  Why was he this way?  Jesus’s response: “that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.”

Jesus also said we will always have the poor (Mark 14:7).  Looking back, I think I used that as an excuse to be apathetic. Homelessness was a persistent, abstract problem without solution. Now I just see an abundance of opportunities to glorify God through good works that He has commanded us to do and demonstrated in Jesus. 

But the pragmatic side of me still asks: Will I be successful if I try to help this person? What if they don’t change?

And then I realize I’ve been asking the wrong questions again. Maybe helping with the homeless will change them. Maybe it will only change me. It doesn’t really matter.
The right question is “why?”—why should I even try?

To glorify God.  And to love them, even if it’s hard, because that’s how God loves me.
 
This season, my prayer is that the Lord watch over and protect our homeless friends in Midland and give them hope.  I also pray for The Field’s Edge, that it would be successful in carrying out its mission to provide hope and a home for those without one.  But most importantly, I pray that God would be glorified by what The Field’s Edge and others around town do for our homeless friends each day.