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Somewhere Along The Way

by Shannon Heiden  
12/23/2008 / Devotionals

You've seen them, they are in the alleys, they are on the street corners and at most freeway frontage roads. Most of the time you don't pay them much attention but when you do, it's usually because they have made contact with you in some way, either by waving you down, outright speaking to you or just being the silent communicator that makes you uncomfortable with their sign that reads " will work for food".

They are the homeless, they are the forgotten and displaced, they are the poor, they are the men, women and yes even children that can incite fury and compassion all at the same time and they are among us always.

Whether we see them or not, they are there. They are the lost wanderers on this earth, somewhere along the way, they didn't find their value, somewhere along the way they weren't shown any worth and somewhere along the way, they have settled and succumbed to being less than what they were created for.

Somewhere along the way they were somebody's child, someone's husband or wife, someone's mom or dad, maybe a brother or a sister, they could even be someone's friend, maybe they still are. But somewhere along the way they ate the bread of adversity and never recovered.

How do they make us feel? How many times has the thought arisen in our comfortable minds "why don't they just get a job, I have to work, so should they?"

Have we stopped to consider that with no place to call their home and hang their heart they can't even fill out an application for a job? Do we realize that they are dirty, smelly and most only have the clothes upon their back or in their street made shopping cart, would we really visit McDonald's if they were serving us that way?

As for the welfare system, yes, it is true that there are some who take advantage of it, (there is always a Judas with his hand in the treasury) but there are those who cannot even try because they have no place to lay their head or keep their vital records one needs to prove who they are.

The truth is; no one starts out in life wishing to become a failure, no one starts a marriage hoping it will end in divorce, no one holds their newborn and looks to a broken estranged relationship down the road. No one starts their career out hoping to get laid off; who in their right mind wakes up and says " I think I'll go and lose my job and not be able to find another so I cant take care of my family, I'll become addicted to something to help me forget my troubles and I will slowly or quickly lose everything and everyone I hold dear?"

But somewhere along the way for millions of people that is exactly what has happened, their intention wasn't for their destruction, it was for their very survival and they didn't know the One who can make all things new! In one day or one hour, life has changed and turned for the worst and suddenly all the things they dreamed about have been trampled underfoot and survival becomes their normal.

But OUR Normal can become someone elses MIRACLE.

We don't have to travel to some distant land to find suffering, all we have to do is look right in our own backyard, down the street two blocks up or drive a little ways and we can find it.

They are the silent sufferers of this earth, no voice to be heard, no fight left in them, because they have no place to lay their head or their weary, broken heart.

What I love about Jesus is very early in his life; He had no place to lay His head. The Son of God, the Savior of all men, was homeless, on the run trying to survive. Can it be that because of the hardships his parents went through running from his homeland because of an evil decree, can it be the reason He says that our act of worship is to take care of the orphans and widows and to defend and HELP the poor?

Jesus didn't say for us to take an analytical assessment on each person to see if they have or haven't got what it takes for us to help them.
I don't recall ever hearing that come from his lips, but what I do recall is Him telling you and I to defend those who cant defend themselves, and if a brother asks, if it is within our power to give, than we should give.

No reasoning's, no justifications, just love, one hand helping another, one heart reaching to another, if only just to help ease the suffering.

Life on the streets is no picnic, it doesn't really matter what gets one there, the fact is they are there and it is not what God desires for anyone.

Haven't we all gotten ourselves into great messes? Are we any different than "they" are? The only difference may simply be, we had help and maybe they didn't, our failures and shortcomings weren't so devastating blatant or public, but we still have them.

Does God love and favor us more because we are educated and we did something with our lives? Maybe we had it rough too, maybe we had hardships, trials and plenty of tears and we made it, but do we realize that the extra fight God gave us wasn't just for us, but to share with those who don't.

It is said "that one half of the world goes to bed hungry, while the other half goes to bed full," well we may not have all the riches of the world but you and I have a place to lay our head.

The Bible says; "that the last shall be first in the kingdom of God and He has chosen the weak of this world to confound the wise." Do we hear our Lord when He said" I shall not always be with you BUT the Poor, they will"

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, God is not upset with us because we have chosen to ignore the man standing on the corner holding out his cardboard sign for help, but God does want us to consider that if we give anyone a cup of water in His name and to the least of these, we are doing it for Christ himself.

I am wondering whose life we could change by giving a dollar wrapped in love and a word from our Lord to their heart, maybe it wont change them, BUT maybe the seed that is planted will someday grow if yet another crosses the same path.

Who knows?

We are not responsible for others life choices or consequences, but May I remind you that the mercy we show to others will be shown to us. Sometimes our lives get so focused on all of our problems and busyness, but truly what are our problems in light of the ones wandering?

Do we daily have to find food from a garbage can or beg on the street from passersby; walk miles to find a shelter only to find it is full and we have to go to an outdoor gymnasium to lay outside on a hard cold paved basketball court in a fenced yard so we don't get attacked while we sleep? Or just grab some ground hidden somewhere and hope we will make it through the night.

Do we fight the trouble of being tempted to become a thief and steal a warm pair of socks so our feet don't freeze or food from a store? Do we daily face the trouble of hooking, and crooking just so we can forget that we are alone while the world passes us by and we are just trying to survive?

Maybe some of us do know that kind of trouble but most of us don't and either way, unless we have walked in another mans shoes, who are we to silently judge another's servant?

Who am I to determine another's worth? The very fact that "they" exist is enough for me to find value in them, for God knit them together in their mothers womb and somewhere along the way they got knocked down one too many times.

The truth is; we don't know what we don't know and my friend, they don't know but we do and we were destined to cross their path and be the very heart, hands and feet of the Father, if we won't be, who will?

The next time you see them, take a moment and ask the Father to show you how He sees them and by touching just one life, we can reach many.

For the Son of God did not come to be served but to serve and the Greatest in the Kingdom, is the Servant to All.

Shannon Heiden
[email protected]
changingonelifereachingmany.typepad.com

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