Word Count: 2079

Contact Shannon Heiden

I WAS, The Young And The Homeless

by Shannon Heiden  
11/17/2008 / Devotionals

I was eyes to the blind.
I was feet to the lame.
I WAS A Father To The Needy;
I took up the case of a stranger.
Job 29:15

Beautiful One, Did you know that; "the young and the old lie together in the dust of the streets?" Lamentations 2:21

Needs, we all have them. As people who are assigned to this earth at this hour there are countless needs that you and I have everyday. If you just look at the basics, we all have a need for; food, clothing, shelter, water and medical supplies, not to mention the list for good paying jobs, vehicles, vacations and the list can go on and on.

But what happens to a person when they are not only deprived of just the basic physical needs but of love, nurturing and value? What happens when a sense of belonging is withheld from them? What happens when a family cannot survive the vicissitudes of life and a child is molded and shaped by adversity and the let downs turn to melt downs that ultimately cause the break downs in the only home they have ever known?

Right here in our nation we have millions of displaced, rejected, broken, hurting people, some are 14 and and some are 40. Just because a person grows up physically does not mean their minds and emotions have grown with them.

Here they are stuck and blinded, some hook and crook, many are alcoholics and drug addicted, some are in trouble with the law, they are impoverished, uneducated, mentally and physically undernourished, and as much as they say they may like it that way-they don't, it's just that whatever circumstances that presented itself in their lives, the pain and traumas of what most of them went through has caused them to stop living, give up and settle for the lie that nothing better is coming their way.

Beautiful One, The truth is; we don't know what road another has traveled on to get them to where they are now. We don't know their hardships, pain and rejections.

And how can we know, unless we get involved?

The truth remains that the outward actions in all of it's chaos, calamity and destruction is just a sign to you and I of just how great the wounding is within their very heart. The reality is-we only do what we know, unless we know the One who shows us something new to do....

I remember when I was just 12 years old. I lived with my mother and younger sister. My mother had just gone through a horrific divorce while enduring 3 breast cancer surgeries as she was struggling to work 3 jobs and go to school full time to become a nurse. No doubt all of these circumstances took a huge toll on our little frail family unit, dad was not around to help, embittered with his own frustrations with the failed marriage it was just the 3 of us left together for a time when candles lit our rooms and food boxes were delivered for our meals. No air conditioning during the summer months, taking a cool shower and wetting our clothes before we slipped into bed was our normal for a season.

One morning before school, my sister and I had a fight and my mother who was just a shell of a broken, surviving woman in her stress and nightmare told me to not to bother to come home, in fact, she specifically told me not to. On that particular day my class was taking a trip to the State Capital and needless to say it was not exciting for me, I was panicked during the trip and the pit in my stomach was more than I could stand.

I remember sitting alone on the bus with my head pressed against the window peering out at the city as we drove nearer and I will never forget the jolt of fear that was driven through my whole being as we drove past a huge park where countless people were sprawled out all over the grass, some were sleeping, some were sitting but I knew at that moment that they all were broken, rejected, poor people who have made a patch of ground their home.

I cannot describe adequately how loudly I heard a voice tell me;
"that's where you're going to end up."

It was a day that I will never forget and the irony of it is; my mother didn't know that when she spoke out of her pain and frustration what I was going to encounter that day, in fact neither did I, yet from that moment on, my life had seemed to go in simultaneous directions that ultimately led me to the very thing I had dreaded and feared since I was 12 years old.

It happened, I was homeless; events, circumstances, abuses, trials, losses, injustices and poor choices made out of ignorance and pain all happened and some years back with garbage bags in my hands and four children to tote along in the misery was my destination on the road I traveled.

How can I even describe and get you to understand that there is no worse feeling in the whole world than when your very survival is robbed of you? Not knowing where to go or what to do, looking at my four innocent children and not being able to give them an answer of what we were going to do or where we were even going to sleep was so horrific that although we are now way beyond that point in time, my heart still feels the searing pain of the experience.

Throughout this experience in my life, God had taken me to places I would not have wanted to go on my own, nevertheless, He allowed me to witness firsthand another side of life.

I have seen sixty year old grandmothers smoking crack right in front of me, jumping from one shelter to another with no hope for ever having a home of their own. I have seen mothers grace the halls of shelters, married mothers who look like women we go to church with, women who were abused and abandoned and had to flee their homes with young children in the middle of the night. I have seen broken, hard hearted, empty blank eyes where the light had gone out from them staring at me, I've seen thieves who would come to steal anything from anyone so that they could go and pawn to get money.

I have seen where the prostitutes sleep in and behind garbage dumpsters for fear of being beaten by the men who had promised to take of them. Women who were somebody's daughter, sister or friend, maybe they were somebody's mother? I have seen others who weigh less than 50lbs who have pulled out all of their hair and their bleeding bones were showing through because they were so chemically addicted that the mind that they were given to think with- was now nothing more than an encasing for paranoia.

I've seen numerous people- men, women and children waiting alongside of me in the welfare lines,on the streets, in the shelters and yes, even in jail when I was arrested for a ticket that I had unknowingly forgotten to pay.

"I have seen the young and the old lying together in the dust of the streets;"

Some got there of their own volition and others were taken there by the tragedies of their life.

But what I have found so interesting in all of it, is that no matter how bitter the suffering, no matter how much one adapted or succumbed, these people matter and whether they knew it or not and whether we know it or not the truth remains that there are so many needs out there that we just never know what God can do unless we reach out and become a father and mother to the needy.

The truth is adversity can come knocking on anyone's door and it does everyday and you don't have to travel thousands of miles to find a person in need- all you have to do is look around you....

As I look back over my life, I can see that the very things the enemy of my soul tried to utterly destroy me with, are the very things that God has ignited a full blown passion in me for. The needy are not bad people, they are people like you and I who have made bad choices or have been the victim of someone elses.

I was a Christian when I was drug addicted and in an abusive marriage, I was a Christian when I had an affair and got wrapped up with an abusive man who I thought could rescue me, I was a Christian when I was walking the streets and begging for shelter, I was a Christian when I had to take my 3 young boys and place them in a children's home because I just couldn't take care of them.

I was a Christian when adversity and brokenness were my two very best friends and survival was what I settled for, it was all I knew how to do.

Those times were so hard, I mean, the pain and the fear I had; I can honestly say; I can see how a person can just give up and throw in the towel of life.

I can see why so many do....

BUT GOD...

But God had a plan and by His grace He brought me and mine out and to meet and know us today, you would never guess that some years back- we were the ones who you drove by on the street....

Some people could not have survived and some people don't. Although I questioned God several times why I had to struggle and crawl my way through life like I did, I have now come to realize that for me- my steps were completely ordered by the Lord and not one of them was taken alone.

God allowed the adversity so that I would know Him in the way that I do, but also that everything I had walked through, He knew my hands would write to tell about it, and my mouth would not cease to speak about it so that in my experience others may come to know; that what He did for me-He will do for them and what He did in me, he did it for someone else who just doesn't know and who may be broken and beaten down, abandoned, abused, rejected and afraid.

He did it for someone who might be ready to give up and give in because all they have come to know is;
"The young and the old lie together in the dust of the streets."

But you and I can change that, we can look beyond ourselves in our comfort zones, silent judgments and our self righteousness that maybe we don't even realize we have and we can remember the words of Christ himself, when He said;

"I will not always be with you-but The Poor-THEY WILL. ..."

Let us rise up and shine in this hour and become a father to the needy; even the smallest act of kindness and giving can have a huge eternal impact.

Let us take the arms, hands and feet that Christ has grafted us into and use the voice God has given us to sing over another. It is time to reach out and infiltrate the streets, we need to penetrate our neighborhoods, schools and our communities and let us love the unlovely, let us embrace the brokenness and suffering, and let us undo the works of the enemy!

One life at a time.....

You know, when the enemy spoke those words to me as a 12 year old little girl- he was right, the streets is exactly where I ended up, but although I went there, God brought me out of there, so He could send me back in there and through me, He will pull another up, who is lying in the dust of the streets......

Yep, that's exactly where this woman will end up!

Beautiful One, Just Believe, And The Question We Must Answer Is; Would a Father To The Needy Leave The Young And The Old Lying Together In The Dust Of The Streets?

Shannon Heiden
[email protected]
changingonelifereachingmany.typepad.com

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be! Click here and TRUST JESUS NOW

Read more articles by Shannon Heiden

Like reading Christian Articles? Check out some more options. Read articles in Main Site Articles, Most Read Articles or our highly acclaimed Challenge Articles. Read Great New Release Christian Books for FREE in our Free Reads for Reviews Program. Or enter a keyword for a topic in the search box to search our articles.

Enter comments below. Due to spam, all hyperlinks posted in the comments are now immediately disabled by our system.

Please type the following word below:

Not readable? Change text.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

Hire a Christian Writer, Christian Writer Wanted, Christian Writer Needed, Christian Content Needed, Find a Christian Editor, Hire a Christian Editor, Christian Editor, Find a Christian Writer