“I am a Social worker”, she said. I looked at her and my heart broke.
Standing before me was a well-spoken woman, with the potential to bring healing to lives that had been damaged. She was pleasant with a ruddy complexion and despite her current circumstances she looked neat.
As I handed her a bowl of food I could not help but wonder, “What could possibly have happened in her life to bring her to this?”
It was Thursday night and I was out with a team of people, members from different churches who get together every week to feed the homeless in our area.
Moving from one communal gathering place to another, we have come to know faces and personalities and it never ceases to amaze me how perfectly ordinary so many of them are. If you had met them under different circumstances, you would never know that they lived on the streets.
There are families with little children living on the streets, there are people who have full time jobs but who cannot afford the rents, pensioners, elderly people who have been hi-jacked and lost the ability to provide for themselves because of it. People who have been disabled because of work related accidents and now 8 years later are finally getting a pay out from Workmen’s Compensation. 8 years with no ability to provide for themselves!
Yes, there are also those who through poor choices, alcoholism and drug addiction, are on the streets BUT even then I have to ask myself – did any one of these people ever think that this would be their life?
Each and every one of us, growing up, had an expectation that we would have a good life. Nobody has dreams or aspirations of becoming an alcoholic, a drug addict, a prostitute or raising our children on the streets.
So for me the question remains, “What happened to strip them of their dreams?”
Jesus said in John 10:10, “the thief comes ONLY in order to steal and kill and destroy. I (Jesus) came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance.”
We have an enemy who desires to destroy our lives, my prayer for you is that you would recognize him when he comes knocking.
Ask yourself, “Is what I am about to do, going to help me fulfill my dream or does it have the ability to destroy it?”
Choose well...choose life!
