A heavy burden

I know that it has been over a week since I have posted about the kids and I know that is what most of my readers are interested in. They are doing great and cute as ever. I will write about them soon. Today, I have something else weighing on my mind.

I found out late Sunday night that a good friend of mine from high school and college is now homeless. Through a chain of events, beginning with his wife leaving him for another man at their church, this friend ended up living on the street and now calls himself a street preacher. He apparently sits by the side of the road with signs condemning all manner of societal woes. My understanding is that he is lucid and this is the life he has chosen for himself and that it has been going on for at least 3-4 years. I have found this information very hard to swallow. I am perplexed and heart-broken.

I find myself at a loss for how to pray for him. I suppose that if this is God's will for his life, I should pray for the effectiveness of his mission? When John the Baptist was the voice crying out in the wilderness, I'm sure people questioned whether he was playing with a full deck, right? Who am I to say? But if this is not God's will for his life, and just some misguided way of handling the anger from his broken relationship, then I pray for intervention and healing and restoration and peace.

If you are a person of faith, I would ask that you join me in praying for my friend. Whether or not you are a person of faith, I would ask that you re-think the way you look at homeless people. A few years back, there was a man who sat at a bus stop outside my church on Sundays when the service was letting out. He held a sign that said something about how teenage girls dress like whores in church. I had to admit to myself last night that, even though I saw that guy a number of times, I never looked at him. I just dismissed him as a crazy person and shook my head with pity. Could it have been my friend? Possibly. Whether or not he was my friend, he was a human being whose life has value and I had no idea what set of circumstances had led him to that place. So, not only am I perplexed and heart-broken, but I am also convicted. Now, as I pray for my friend, I will also pray for a change in my own heart in the way I look at folks whom I presume are not like me. Maybe they are a lot more like me than I would like to think. Certainly my friend and I had enough in common to be friends for six years though our lives have taken very different paths....

In closing, I do not feel comfortable publishing my friend's name in such a public forum, but if you would like to pray for him by name, shoot me an e-mail and I'd be glad to provide more information.