Compassion Anyone?

“Everybody is God’s Somebody!”

I am the first person to admit that I am not always as compassionate as I could be.  I am sassy and sarcastic.  I am snarky and (sometimes) an elitist.  I generously admit it.  Yet, even having said that, I am passionate (get passionate post link) about a few things and helping people in need is one of them! 

Compassion literally means to suffer with.  So, when Jesus was “moved with compassion” for His people, he literally suffered with them.  And ultimately for them.  But this isn’t about Jesus nor is it really about me (well that isn’t totally true).  I recently met a couple who are homeless.  I have seen them around the area where I work, and the “wife” is always reading a book.  Now this may not strike you as odd or out of the ordinary, but every time I have seen her, she’s had a different book (*please remember that I am an English professor, I notice when people are actually reading)!

Now when I say homeless—some people automatically assume alcohol, drugs, mental illness… but as we may be learning through this financial downturn—that isn’t always the case anymore!!!

Not only that, I see them “carrying” all their belongings around town and my nosey-ness got the best of me.  I finally decided to ask them if they wanted some food.  I am always hesitant to just offer, out of the blue, simply because it has backfired on me before where a woman got belligerent with me and said, “I don’t want food Bi#$%!  I want money!”  However, since I had seen them a lot lately, I decided to introduce myself.  After making initial “Hi my name is…” I found out that her name is Anne and his is name Richard. 
I asked them if I could buy them a meal.  Anne was hesitant to respond, so I pressed, “No really, can I buy you two some food?”  And then things happened swiftly—with food in hand, the conversation started.  Now, K and I feed the homeless guys who roam the park near our house on a regular basis, but as stated previously, my fortune for helping the random person hasn’t always worked out so well for me.  But this was different.  This couple, once they warmed up to me, was amazing and in love with each other and caring and completely open about their situation. 

While I would love to share the whole encounter with you, I want to keep most of it for my own memory bank.  These people taught me so many things in our moments together.  I learned more about love and loyalty.  I was slapped in the face with a real life example of what not being able to find a job (resumes in hand and really looking) has done to family units.  I learned about laughing at situations—because if you don’t, you will cry all the time.  And finally, I learned about hope—because “if you lose hope that tomorrow will be better—you don’t have anything to look forward to!”