On one of our trips to visit folks at a local bus stop, we encounted a group of men gathered around talking. We handed out slips of paper that had scripture on it, along with an invite to attend a Bible Study at the Bojangles where we meet on Saturdays. There have been times where individuals begin to tell us about their current struggles and why there are at at the bus stop. A good portion of them are homeless and looking for jobs, food, and a place to sleep. We ask them if we can pray for them and then cover them in prayer for whatever they may be going through in the moment. We also invite them to Bojangles for a bite to eat and a conversation that can lead to resources.
The people we meet have a wide variety of economic and religious backgrounds. As we spoke to the group of men at the bus stop, they started asking questions about the Christian religion. They had different religious beliefs and as such, were asking very pointed questions. One of the men was Muslem, a religion that I’m very familiar with. We talked for a little while and he asked me “Where do we believe Hell exists?” I am aware that he was expecting me to say a physical place under our feet. My response was that I believe we can experience Hell right here on earth. He gave me a high 5 as that is the answer he was looking for. I saw a spark in him where there was a very large wall at the beginning of our conversations.
Today, I was reading in Deuteronomy 11 and came across this verse: “If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul, I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your gain, new wine, and fresh oil. I will provide grass in our fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, serve and bow in worship to other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the Lord is giving you.”
When I read this, the conversation we had with these men came to mind. It is hard living out on the streets. It is hard living paycheck to paycheck. For some, when it rains, it pours and after being rained on again and again, time after time, we give up and surrender to the world. There are many folks from different churches who walk around and talk to the homeless trying to get them to go to church, or throwing scripture at them, insinuating that if they give their life to God and go to church, their life will change from one of poverty to one of abundance. Many of those who are homeless had jobs, a home, and a family at one time. There are many who have a very strong Christian background and who were raised in church. Something happened in their life, usually a death of someone very close to them, and they slipped away following other gods they found in alcohol or drugs. They are experiencing the Hell that results, while they are here on earth. The sky feels shut, there is no rain and the land is not producing. They are existing, waiting for their time to come to an end.
The road back to God is not always a quick road. As much as we would love to lead them back to God through quoting scripture or holding a Bible Study to keep them reading God’s word on a consistent basis, they are so engrained in the things of the world that their new lifestyle has become their new comfort zone. Any other path just seems hard and out of reach. What we have found is by showing up every week and just listening, telling them that we love them, giving them hugs and seeing them as a person made in the image of God just like us, and not a worthless person who is drowning their sorrows in alcohol or drugs, we hope they can get a little glimpse of the heaven that exists here on earth as well. Piecing together those little bits of heaven and throwing in resources here and there can begin to open up a path back to God that at one time felt so out of their reach. It brings a sense of community and family back into their lives, and lets them know that they do matter, and are loved unconditionally.
We cannot make anyone turn their lives over to God and worship him with all their heart and soul so that they can bask in the heaven that is also here on earth; however, we can open up the tiny glimpses through showering them with God’s love and be there for them as they initiate steps towards a new path – one filled with love and support to weather the ups and downs of life.