"We don't have to go to a third world country or a big inner city to find homelessness, poverty, sex trafficking, lonely people, hungry people..."
The above was excerpted from Jay Hardwick's blog, as he commented on "What keeps me awake at night."
I can immediately identify with Jay's entire piece, in particular with the quoted portion above. My small city of 48,000, here in upstate N.Y., has its own share of homelessness, poverty, sex trafficking, lonely people, hungry people,etc. Wherever fear and hopelessness abound, there is homelessness and a host of other outer issues keeping them company. The "problem" that is common to those we would like to wish didn't exist is that they have lost hope. No hope = no desire to improve one's life.
What does hoplessness look like? "This is all I am worth. I will never do any better. I might as well crawl into a hole and die."
Those who are caught up in the viscious cycle of homelessness have lost hope. Some have tried everything, within their human ability, to pull themselves up, only to get knocked back down again. Others don'teven try anymore because they feel that it is pointless. Many times their is a prevailing vice that has formed a stronghold on a person's life that they just can't break free from, which keeps them focusing on themselves and their problems instead of looking up.
What they need to see is, as Sanctus Real sings, "The face of love" in us, as we become the hands and feet of Jesus in the midst of a broken and scarred world.
