I am homeless

Summer 1989 in Paris; a city which captures the imagination of many as a city of romance, high fashion, exquisite cuisine, good looking people, beautiful architecture... A city where I had my first encounter with homelessness.

It was late at night. My friends and I were walking back to the church, a short distance away. What I saw that night is imprinted in my mind to this day.

We came across a man lying on top of a hot air vent on the pavement. He was curled up, his arms folded close to his chest, his legs bent towards his body; in an effort to keep warm. It was summer but nights can be cold and specially so for this man without a roof over his head. He was not the only one there. There were others like him in that place I had walked by with my friends that night, so many years ago.

It was my sudden introduction to the unfamiliar, and ironically, it was in a city which is known for its fashion, culture, and beauty. It was a social phenomenon altogether foreign to my young world then. I was shaken, to say the least, by the thought that this person had perhaps no family and no house to go back to, that the streets under the open skies was his home. I was saddened and found it hard to grasp the reality of what I was seeing, because none of this had existed in my world and home city at that time.

For Asians, family is important. Family includes grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins... the blood-that-is-thicker-than- water family extending beyond the nuclear unit. We take care of our old, we help one another in our struggles. No matter how bad life turns out, we know there is always at least a place to stay while we get back on our feet.

Homelessness was foreign to us. But then something started to change, something must have gone wrong with our values. It must be, because homelessness had crept into our comfortable,  secure world. I do not know exactly when  it happened but it is definitely here.

Recently I joined my son with our church youth group for their "box project". The idea is simple; fill up boxes with basic supplies and go seek out the needy in the streets of the city. It is not a novel idea, people in other places are doing it too. For us and our youths, it was a small act motivated by the amazing love of God for all peoples. He cares and He wants us to express that love in simple practical ways.

Meeting and talking with an old man sleeping on a park bench that night brought back those feelings I first had in Paris but with the perspective of someone who is older now. 

Later that night, my comfortable bed had felt uncomfortable knowing he was sleeping on a piece of cardboard. And it also just wasn't right that a man in his twilight years is missing out on what should be the joys of being a grandfather, and being able to rest from the struggles and labour of youth... What does one do with such feelings but to translate them into action? But that's another story.

For the next few days ever since we met him and others, including one who slept next to a dumpster; I found myself dwelling on what could possibly land a person in that kind of dire straits. And it dawned on me that homelessness could happen to any one of us. Even the wealthy, the educated... any one.

To me, homelessness is a state of not having a home; and not necessary of not having a house. A person may have a house where family members live but it is not his home if he is not welcomed there, for whatever reason. It is also a state of having no physical dwelling at all to go back to. 

Each of these persons on the streets have their own stories and reasons for being there; and whatever it is, as I see it, may be simply reduced to the "C or C" reasons; choice or circumstance or both. While personal choices and in this case, the wrong misguided ones, are often times avoidable; circumstances are not within the individual's control.

The sobering thought is that any one of us can easily end up sleeping on that bench, sidewalk or dumpster. 

Consider this example. Many of us have taken for granted living our comfortable lives in houses that are on loan from the banks, serviced by the salaries we earn from our regular jobs or businesses we own, made partly possible because we are still physically able and healthy. Take the latter away through an unfortunate circumstance such as a car accident, a serious sickness; and the equation may just fall apart. Coupled with depression and rejection; that homeless man or woman on that bench can be any one of us.  

A homeless man or woman, where life is merely living day to day, hoping for the next meal, wondering if it's going to come or its going to be another night of going to sleep hungry. Each passing day, waiting, hoping, for someone to finally take notice. With nothing much left to call one's own, yet holding on to the barest shred of dignity left and silently asking not to be judged, not to be condemned, not to be ostracized but to be helped.

Sharing my reflections with my son, his reply was "we are homeless".  Those 3 simple words were profound if not puzzling. But I knew what he meant. He was responding from an eternal perspective. Making it personal, it is true when I say "I am homeless". But what does it mean? I have a house, I have a home yet... I am homeless.

From an eternal perspective, it simply means... I am homeless here; in the here and now, in this temporal life on earth. Simply because this is not my permanent home, "I am just a passing through" like the old hymn says. My permanent home is an eternal one. 

I am homeless here even though I have a physical dwelling,  but my Lord Jesus was without one when He came as a man, living among people for a short 33 years to show us what God is like and what He came to do, that is, to seek and save the lost. One time He had said, "foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to  lay His head" (Luke 9:58)

What is home? It is a place of rest, refuge, refreshing and all that is good; where there is love, forgiveness, acceptance. The homes here where we experience that to a certain measure is really only a little glimpse of that other Home that is indescribably better, real, permanent, eternal.

For Jesus has promised "In My Father's house are many mansions...I go to prepare a place for you...I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." (John 12:2,3) That is the Home I mean and that is the one I am looking forward to.

Meanwhile, for as long as we live on the earth, there is a job to do, a responsibility. The two greatest commandments to obey are simple, really. To love God with all of our hearts, souls, strength and to love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37,38)

Meanwhile, for as long as I have breath, I do well to heed my Saviour's words to care for the least among us. I do well not to look down on anyone regardless of his or her state in life; or reasons for living on the streets; but instead to extend a helping hand in whatever capacity and ability I have.

For it is Him I am doing it to and it is Him that I am doing it for... for therein is joy in the doing... 

Matthew 25:34-40