Today is Monday, January 9th, 2012; Karen's Korner #2231

As I was driving, doing some errands around town on Friday, I caught parts of a radio broadcast from a talk show on a Christian radio station. I can't tell you the name of the show nor the name of the man being interviewed.
 
All I know is that what was being said was thought provoking and gave me cause for pause.
 
It seems this guy had always been envious of others from the time he could remember. So much so that he was a member of the Communist Party in America. He had only been married for a matter of months, when he had a conversion experience that caused him to become a loyal follower of Jesus. "I can honestly say that almost immediately that envy I had always felt was removed," he said. His life did a complete turnaround.
 
Helping the poor and needy became a mainstay of his life.
 
Within the last year, he had decided to see if he could learn first-hand what it was like to be homeless. He chose Washington D.C. to 'become a homeless person'.
 
He told the interviewer that in his parts of several days of 'role play', it didn't take very long to network with other homeless people. He learned how to get around. Where to get the next meal. How to find needed clothes. While the food he and others like him were given, wasn't 'five star', "it was hot and it was good".
 
One thing he noted in the time was that no one came along side him to find out more about him and his current plight. "No one asked me how it happened I was now homeless," he said. "No one asked if there were ways that they could help me climb out of my present situation." He said he was 'waited on' so much by some of the people, that he wasn't even asked to clear his own plate and table area.
 
"I felt sort of like our family dog," he said. "Our family takes good care of our dog, but we don't ask very much from him to earn his keep."
 
When he ate breakfast at a large church in the metro area, one attractive young gal asked him if there was something else she could get for him, he said, "Yes, I'd like a Bible."
 
Her response, "Did you say bagel?"
 
He repeated his request. She didn't know where she could get him one. He didn't get a Bible.
 
He was fed and clothed. He appreciated what others did for him. But he wasn't sure if a hand out was better than a hand up would have been. He determined, in his future, he would attempt to meet even more needs of people than the physical ones to people who are homeless......
 
 
Dear Father in Heaven, thank You that you help each of us with all the needs in our lives. You know that our needs are more than physical; we have needs which are also emotional, intellectual, financial, spiritual. If and when we have people in our lives with needs of any kind, help us to ask the right questions, attempt to give the right answers, and meet needs at levels only You can help us to determine! You have the ability to 'set all the captives free'....from every ill that comes our way! In Jesus' name. Amen.
 
 

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