Day 25: Hungry and Homeless

In the days of affliction and homelessness, Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers which have now been given away for food. No one helps and they laugh at her ruin and she has become a filthy thing. There is not any pain like her pain. She did not think of her future, so she has fallen in an astonishing way. She asks for bread but languishes in the city streets and faints like the wounded. She who used to eat delicacies is made to tremble in the streets and embrace garbage heaps. She is dirty and not recognized in the streets. Her skin is shriveled and dry on her bones. She wastes away. She even calls herself unclean. People she has sought refuge with say, “She shall not continue to reside with us.” Images and phrases from Lamentations 1-5.

Hunger and homelessness is not a modern phenomenon. Lamentations was written by Jeremiah, the prophet of God, in the 6th century before Christ. This book of the Bible is known for its imagery and poetic brilliance. Jerusalem and the temple was judged by God and destroyed by the Babylonians. They felt their rejection by God deeply. The whole nation was homeless. In our current age, our hungry and homeless population is increasing. In our day to day life, we usually come face to face with it.

What is your honest response? During this fast, most of you are giving up something that the homeless cannot afford to go without. Their day is spent looking for food and feeling hungry. They are on a sort of fast, but without the restorative prayer part …

What does their day feel like? Paula Dyan, a social worker, systematically asked this question of her homeless clients. What I wrote below adopts the most common words she reports they use:

How do I feel? I feel humiliated, unwanted, like a pariah around other people, and I feel so alienated from real life. This experience is so emotionally shattering that I have low self-esteem and my moral compass is battered. I am rootless and unstable. I feel naked, vulnerable and unsafe. I am faced with danger daily and I am always scared. Noise and chaos rule the night. I don’t trust anyone. There is no privacy and I would rather be dirty in unclean clothes than expose any part of me. I am not healthy. There are constant obstacles to doing even the simplest things I used to do, and I have a hard time focusing. The stress from trying to find water, food, shelter, and a bathroom each day is overwhelming and some days I don’t have the energy to do even that. I am depressed and I don’t trust my own judgment. The days I have some get up and go and fire in my belly, it quickly shows up as frustration, anger and bitterness.

How does your fast feel?

You might ask yourself, am I denying myself enough to feel like the Israelites? Like the homeless? I’m not suggesting that you totally fast, or that total denial is more spiritual, but is there something more you can do to truly feel the pain of hunger?

God asks this of you:

Is this not the fast that I choose for you? … Is it not to break your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house? (Isaiah 58:7)

How do we do this? Show respect, look them in the eye and say, Hi! Talk to them and tell them about God’s love and show His love in your eyes as you do. Bring them some food. Give them a few dollars. Volunteer. Get on a list for intermittent help. Pray.

What is one more thing you might do in the remaining five days of your fast and prayer commitment, or during one of these days, to experience His true hunger and let it drive you more closely to His heart for you and His heart for the hungry and the homeless?

How could you use the freedom God has given you to do more to help the hungry and the homeless?

Father God, I know how much it pains You to see Your children hurting. Thank You for all the resources You have blessed me with. I want to feel their pain and be a blessing for them. Help me plant seeds and not just sit in the farmhouse. Show me when to step out into Your harvest field. Amen.