How Our Friends Without Houses Die
We have been meeting as Holy Chaos now for four weeks, and each week has been an education for us. Our teachers have been our friends without houses.
This week we received an up front explanation of how our friends without houses die.
One such explanation came from Michael. He came for the first time, obviously agitated and could not remain silent. His face was bruised. As we passed the famous “sharing spoon,” he shared a bit of his story.
(And I am sure there is more to this, but this much I believe is true) He is trying to get off alcohol, but in the process of getting off alcohol, he experienced seizures. These seizures hit and caused him to fall on the streets, bruising his body. He was not sure whether he could get back into the program he needed.
At one point, he stood in the circle and addressed us all. (This is the accepted “chaos” time!) He told us of how he is a Christ follower, but he needs an advocate. He told us that he did not think he could live without an advocate. He said that all he had at this point was Jesus, but that he needed one of us. Well praise God for Jack who has so far spent 10 hours with him this week, and helped him get into the needed program. We are trying to figure out now how we help him upon release.
But that is not all, our “street angel” shared as well about how one of his friends died on the streets this past year. He was on a bench for 8 hours before anyone knew he was dead. The street angel himself passed by and didn’t even know - several times in fact. Because of this, our new saintly friend hits the streets in the evening to feel pulses and make sure people on the street are alive. If they are cold, he delivers blankets or gets them shelter. He has a friend who drives a taxi and they pick them up and find shelter.
Let’s sober up ourselves. Let’s sober up from greed and being entertained in church. As we partner to help sobriety on the streets, there is a parallel sobriety needed for ourselves.
We are beginning to see it happening:
*One wonderful friend is taking pictures of Pershing Park, the Village, Holy Chaos - so can we advocate our message
*I just received an email from a Westmont revolutionary who wants to get his friends to the community center to be with kids
*A missional core of pastors is being united to steward the love and grace of God to our city
*Many of you are already involved, and are the mission yourselves - thank you!
But, we are still addicted ourselves to an unrealistic escapism of “who is my neighbor.” We must continue to move outward, toward “the other” and embrace all who are marked with the beautiful image of God. Choosing life over death, means following the movement of life as expressed in the gospels, illustrated by none other than Jesus Himself.
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