Take Action

Usually around this time of the year, many people make New Year Resolutions of ways to change their lives in the upcoming year for the better. Here is one way you can change...

I was in NYC for 5 days over New Years and one thing I noticed about the city was the enormous amount of poverty and homelessness. I've seen a lot of homelessness in Charlottesville where I went to school with the guys begging for money on The Corner or at the Downtown mall. Then in my hometown of Newport News, I interacted with the homeless population a lot more through my last job at LINK of Hampton Roads. I worked for a housing program for the disabled homeless population and also worked as an intake worker at a winter homeless shelter for a year. It was definitely an eye opening experience and I learned a lot about the life of a homeless individual.

However, I don't think I have ever been so moved by the sight of a homeless guy like the guy I saw in Grand Central Station in NYC just a few days ago. He was so physically decrepit that he was collapsing every few steps as he walked, falling over the trash cans to brace himself. His clothes were worn, his hair was unkempt, and he had a number of physical bodily problems that you could see just on the exterior. He was going from trash can to trash can digging inside them looking for food. Once he checked out one trash can, he would move onto the next and dig his hands down through all the trash looking for leftover food that people had thrown away. I made a comment to my friend that it was a really sad sight and that I had never seen anything like it before.

Five minutes later my friend left the table we were sitting at and I thought she was going to the bathroom. She was gone for awhile so I got up to go look for her. I turn the corner and see her talking to the homeless, starving man and ushering him over to the closest fast food restaurant and buying him dinner. I went and sat back down and five minutes later she returned to the table and said nothing, doing her act of kindness in complete humility and not boasting about it at all. Wow, I'm left speechless.

It immediately made me think of this passage from the Gospel of Matthew:
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

I simply made an observation and just looked at the guy, but my friend took action out of love. So, one way I am going to try and change for 2012 is to be less of a person of observation and more a person of action.

Are you going to just voice that changes need to be made, or are you going to get off your butt and actually take action?