Love God. Love People.

Analysts place the number of homeless Americans at 3.5 million, with 1.4 million being children. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, 1 in 50 children are homeless in America today.
This number is growing drastically due to the recession we're currently in. This is such a small statistic compared to the rest of the world, but many of us don't understand that a large portion of America, the richest nation in the world, suffers from hurting, broken people as well.

A few weekends ago, a few days before I moved to Raleigh, NC, I was hanging out with some friends downtown Roanoke, VA. That night, as I was walking down the street, I heard someone call my name. I turned to acknowledge the voice, yet I couldn't place the voice with a face in the crowd of homeless people where it had come from. He called out again. He was a friend of mine from Highschool! I hadn't seen him in years! After exchanging a few words, He told me that he had had some problems with his family and that they had given up on him. It was then that the homeless crowd around him didn't seem so distant and strange. He told me that he had been homeless for about a year and a half now. He had shared a little about how he would go from place to place, sleeping in whatever he can find and roaming the streets for food. After a few minutes of chatting, I told him that I had to go because I was on my way to pick up a cell phone a friend was giving me when he had stopped me. So I left.. 10 minutes hadn't even passed when it hit me. I finally realized what had happen. I quickly made my way back to where we had spoken minutes before, but he was already gone. I got in my truck and searched all over downtown for him, but after about a half an hour of searching, I gave up. I had been given the perfect opportunity to witness and help a friend out who, at the time, had nothing, but I didn't. I was so distracted by what was going on in my life that I couldn't take the time to reach out to a broken heart.

I have always lived by a simple rule. Love God, Love People. After all, the greatest example of Christ is to share his love with others, not point and give the "repent or you're going to burn in hell for eternity" finger. But this time I didn't. I had the perfect opportunity and I blew it. I got distracted..
Sometimes we get distracted of what our purpose in life really is.. Sure, we have families we love, hobbies and blessings we enjoy; but when work, school, sports, music, technology, etc. becomes habitual, we don't have time for anything else. It keeps us from fulfilling our purpose. Anything that becomes a routine, that distracts us from serving the Lord, is a sin; and, habitual sin is what keeps us on satan's leash.

So my challenge is this: Think about Jesus and his time on earth. Think about all the weak, sick, broken, hurting people he extended an arm of love to. Think about his teachings and what he says about Loving others in his word. Now think about the homeless person on the corner, standing in the median with a sign between two busy intersections. Everytime we pass them and do nothing, we might as well slap Jesus in the face. Regardless of what we think, not all homeless people use our money to buy alcohol; and, if we're using that excuse to justify not giving, then we have more problems then they do. Finally, think about that homeless person as someone close to you; a family member, a close friend or just someone you know.. Would you react differently?

The challenge is to love others and extend a helping hand, regardless of how they choose to react to it... It's our turn to live by example.