Yesterday morning started off like any other morning. I woke up early, devos, went running, got ready for class. The Sun was extra bright, life's pretty good at this point! Ran into my friend, Steph Mangold, who told me they evacuated the whole Cathedral of Learning (for the 4th time this week), so classes were cancelled for the morning!! To celebrate, I decided to grab a Chocolate-Chip Bagel with Hazelnut Cream Cheese from Panera Bread (I'm such a girl!). As I was walking home, thinking about the endless possibilities of spending my morning (reading the Word, eating my awesome bagel out in the Sun on my roof), I also asked God to open my eyes and ears to what He wanted me to see and hear, out of the whims of excitement from my free morning. As I rounded the corner on Atwood, the homeless man that sits by the mailbox almost every day, caught my attention. He has a long, gray beard, and sits at the corner wrapped in old blankets and a sleeping bag, rain or shine, whether it's 80 degrees like today or 8 degrees. He never heckles or make eye contact. His presence there, though, screams that is in need and helpless. "Give him your bagel", I hear deep inside me, the Spirit prompts me. It took me a while for this message to even come to my conscience out of my morning plans. I wish I could have ended this story in victory, to tell you that I knelt down beside him--regardless of whether I think if he is REALLY in need, whether he can find help and food elsewhere, whether he's just too lazy or not to get a job, or whether I support Obama-care or not--I wish I could to tell you that I gave him my bagel with a smile on my face, ask him if I could pray for him, and share the Gospel with him if he's never known Jesus.
But I didn't. I kept walking. I clenched my bagel bag tightly and walked home, up to my roof, and ate it in the Sun.
This makes me flashback to something I had the opportunity to witness in Valparaiso, Chile. Pontificial Catolica, the university I attended, is in the heart of the city. Naturally, there are a lot of homeless people in the city, just like in any city, even our city. The homeless in Valpo are even more marginalized and visible there. They often suffer physically or mentally, with missing teeth, dirty faces, dirty clothes, and missing limbs. Okay--maybe they are pretty similar. I try to keep loose dollars on me to give to people freely. If they are at a point in their life where they are on the streets, begging, they must be in need. I would try and practice this while in Chile as well, having loose change on me to bless another.
There was one day that will always resonate with me. As I was waiting to catch a bus home from class, I saw a guy, my age, knelt down and eye-level in front of a homeless man that I would pass practically every day to and from class. The homeless man was sitting up, engaged, listening intently to this guy with a smile on his face. The guy my age had a Bible propped on his knee, gesturing excitedly to the homeless man, clearly sharing the Good News. This homeless man wasn't receiving money or food from the world, but Everlasting Life!
It's so evident in Scripture how Jesus feels about our attitudes toward the poor. He tells the rich young man, in love, that he lacked one thing: "go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." -Mark 10:21 (ESV) This isn't a suggestion or room for opinion--it's a command.
Seeing this guy really challenged me. The Lord gave the opportunity to present the Gospel to a girls' orphanage there through a VBS involving the salvation bracelets with different-colored beads to represent each part of the Story. I loved every second of it, but I also realized that I was in my comfort zone. Here was a guy, probably a few blocks from his own university, by his friends and peers, knelt before the lowest of us (who, when we stand before God, will be before us), in his hometown, by his home school, and near his home friends. Such guts!!
Praying for greater boldness in my own city of Pittsburgh. Challenged, without condemnation, but definitely challenged!
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