(About a 5 min read… it might improve your reach!)
I’ve seen it before… I’ve stopped and listened to their truth… lies… or simply whatever stories they felt safe to tell… the streets make hearts hard… like an unruly prison… hurt… loss… it’s their every day reality… their biggest fears are weather and violence… I would sit… listen… and just… encourage… and lend a listening ear…
About a year ago I was driving home with my wife… we were passing a grocery store and heading up a steep hill… across the street there was a filthy man in a wheelchair… he was trying to push his way up the hill… I quickly turned the around and looked at my wife… she knew what I was about to do… I parked the car, swung open the door and darted across the street… I said “hey bro! That looks rough… can help you?” He looked over at me and said with a confused look on his face “… uhhh… sure?…”
I grabbed the wheel chair handles and said “hi, I’m Michael, what’s your name?”… he said “my names Jimmy…” I said “cool, here we go! Make sure you keep your feet up!…” he responded with… “man… I don’t have any feet… I lost them over the winter…” I looked down and sure enough… he wasn’t kidding… I gently asked “can I ask what happened?…”
He told me his story… I’ll share it with you: Jimmy came to Colorado with his wife… a job opportunity fell through… they were evicted and had to move into their van… unfamiliar with the area, they parked the van in a risky area… it was stolen… leaving them on the streets…
The winter was uncommonly cold that year… Jimmy and his wife fell asleep on a grassy patch covered in blankets… Jimmy woke up a week later… in the hospital… excessive frostbite led to both of his feet being amputated… and his wife froze to death… he left the hospital and was back to the streets alone and broken… inside and out…
I gave Jimmy some money and a hug… he thanked me and smiled with a huge toothless grin… I laid my hands on him and prayed for him…
Today, I went with a few friends out to a park in our town where the homeless populate… they’re usually everywhere, however today, it was fairly empty… we passed a man in a cage-like structure under a bridge… I approached him and said “hey man…”the heap of blankets started shuffling and a leg less man in a dirty wheelchair emerged… my heart hurt… “Jimmy?…” I said… he appeared to be in a state of drug withdrawal… he was shaking and aggressive… my friend said “hey man, how’s it going?” Jimmy cussed at him and said “leave me the ?$&@ alone!”
… the gleam in his eyes were gone and addiction and entitlement had set in… a heart decimated…
I love people… that’s the baseline… God loved me at my worst… when I was unlovable and manipulative… God saw me in my disgust and didn’t quit on me… He followed me to the end of myself… once I met that end… He lovingly picked me up and bound my wounds… even as I cussed Him out, fought and screamed… He taught me how to overcome… how to become the victor that He saw me as… He patiently waited for me to slowly… so slowly… grow into how He saw me… and continues to do so today… God love is so deep and so wide that there just isn’t anything that compares…
When I see Jimmy on the street corner, I stop and chat… I ask him how he’s doing… i bring him food or money… I speak life into him and tell him that he’s loved and he has a purpose… I pray for him and always ask him… do you you want to be free yet?… he always smiles like it’s a game and thanks me for the help… until next time…
Let me ask you something… are you a Jimmy with God? Are you making God follow you until you come to the end of yourself? If you are… let me tell you, there’s a cost… it’s the most painful way… Gods love for you is so deep… it’s everything you’ve ever wanted… and needed.
Thanks for listening…
If you want to know more about the deep love of God… DM me… let’s talk.
Michael
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