Dare to Care
HUNGER AND HOMELESS AWARENESS WEEK-November 15-20, 2020
“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor,
the very thing I had been eager to do all along”
(Galatians 2:10)
In honor of Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, I want to share snippets of my experience as the mother of a homeless son in order to paint a picture of the faceless and forgotten men, women, and children who are hungry and homeless. May God fill our hearts with His love and perspective so we can offer hope to the forgotten and those who love them.
This week’s blogs contain excerpts from my first book, entitled The Diamond in Your Disappointment-MINE-ing God’s Treasure in Trials, due for release in 2021.
DARE TO CARE
In 1994, the blustering winds of adversity whipped through my life when my teenage son left home in protest to house rules. As the weeks and months passed, discouragement, sorrow, anxiety, and defeat chipped away at my noble resolve to be brave. By God’s grace alone, I have persevered and endured the ups and downs of loving a missing and homeless son for years on end. In March of 2012, an unexpected call interrupted our dinner and changed our lives. “Do you have a son by the name of James?” the voice on the other end inquired. “Yes, why do you ask?” I answered. “Your son has been burned in a fire. He is in a coma, on a respirator,” she continued. Cupping the phone, I waved my arms until I got my husband’s attention. “It’s Jimmy. He is alive!” I told him. While I stayed on the phone with the hospital, my husband got online and booked us on a plane headed west. The next evening, we stood at the foot of our son’s bed, trying to grasp the unfathomable grace of our God. His plans for a divine reunion included five weeks with our long-lost son.
The gift of time with my son in 2012 provided the missing pieces I needed to fill in some gaps and create a sketchy timeline of his intriguing homeless life. I tasted the bitter pill of reality when I learned that a woody marsh was not merely the scene of the fire. It was the place my son called home. Hearing he lived as a recluse because his mental illness prevented him from staying in shelters broke my heart. Learning that my son sleeps outside without a tent when winter temperatures plummet to 40 below zero blindsided me. Diligent efforts get help for my son failed. He returned to the homeless life and remains missing to this day. I did not choose this plan for my life, but today I would not change it because a missing son led me to a deep and abiding relationship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. God used this experience to give me His heart for the homeless and mold me into a Proverbs 31 woman in a unique way. It prepared me to “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…” (Proverbs 31:8).
Did you know that according to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health, “…6% of Americans are severely mentally ill, compared to the 20-25% of the homeless population that suffers from severe mental illness.1 My son is among the 26% of the homeless population who is mentally ill. He is part of a subgroup of people who have schizophrenia that has gone untreated, which eventually leads to brain damage and a shortened life span. He belongs to a group of people known as the “forgotten population.” To most, he is a faceless man whose needs are invisible and overlooked. Men and women like my son reside on the streets, in the woods, in jails, prisons, and care facilities.
Will you dare to care about the forgotten and faceless? Will you dare to care about the invisible men, women, and children like my son, who live in their cars and dig through dumpsters for dinner as my son does? The English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy once said, “If a path to the better there be-it begins with a full look at the worst.” Despite an all-out campaign to get the homeless into shelters, my son and others choose to endure the fierce cold and stay outside. Many avoid shelters because of overcrowding, which increases the risk of exposure to contagious diseases like Hepatitis and Tuberculosis. The employed homeless people cannot get to a shelter before it fills up for the night. Fearing theft of their meager belongings keeps others out in the cold. Foreclosures have caused suburban poverty and its twin sister, homelessness to skyrocket. Many cannot even conjure up a down payment for affordable housing. The sprawling geography of rural areas has forced others like my son to live in the woods, church basements, sheds, abandoned cars, or doghouses.
I will never forget the young man I met while serving at the Homeless Barbecue outreach. After stuffing an extra sandwich and goodies in his backpack, I looked into his eyes and affectionately stroked his cheek. He cocked his head in astonishment and said, “You touched me. Most people say I am despicable.” Tears welled in my eyes as the arrows of this cruel description pierced my heart. I felt the agony of knowing my precious firstborn has been thought of or called despicable. As the mother of a homeless man, I long for people to fill my son’s backpack with food, look into his eyes, and affectionately stroke his cheek. Will you? Will you dare to care for the hungry and the homeless? Did you know that you can deposit the riches of Christ’s love into the lives of the faceless and forgotten with a smile and kind word?
The frigid weather outside is a frightening contributing factor to this plight of the poor. Even more alarming is the heart that grows cold with indifference to the hungry and homeless. When the 2015 polar vortex paralyzed Atlanta, Georgia, and stranded many in the streets, cars, and makeshift shelters, heroes emerged. People who dared to care pushed stuck vehicles, offered cups of hot chocolate, and even invited strangers in to give them a warm place to sleep for the night. We need heroes today. Will you dare to care about the faceless, forgotten, hungry, and homeless in your community? May Paul’s words give us a passion for the poor and move us to help those stuck in the cycle of poverty. May it always be said of God’s children that we eagerly “…continue to remember the poor…” (Galatians 2:10). Should you choose to accept this assignment, I can guarantee that this winter, all your plummeting spirits will soar to record highs even when the temperatures plunge below zero.
ENDNOTE
1https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hcht/blog/homelessness-and-mental-health-facts