Coming Full Circle

There is a homeless man whom I have encountered a few times during my commute to work the past week. He has approached me twice asking for money for food, usually prompted by his calling me "lady" or "ladybug" and getting a bit too close to me for comfort. I won't lie--it makes me downright uncomfortable. I respond with, "I'm sorry, I don't have anything," and usually that's enough to deter further requests. This morning, however, after asking once again for money for food, he looked down at my iPhone and responded with something like, "You have a phone that does pictures and film. Why can't you help the homeless?" Feeling two parts offended and three parts absolutely exposed to my choosing not to assist, I didn't respond. I recognize that his manner of approaching others for money is manipulative--using pet names and drawing attention to one's hypocrisy is not exactly the most open place from which to enter into conversation. After all, the phone was a gift from my parents, I make very little money in the service internship I am currently undergoing, and how can I know that if I were to hand him a $5 bill it would indeed go toward purchasing food?

All things considered, I still cannot deny that I play a part in the injustice that this man faces every day. I participate in societal structures that are linked to why this man is homeless and hungry in the first place. The system is much larger than me alone, yes, but I cannot turn a blind eye and ear to a person within whom I see Jesus approaching me, feebly and in his humble but ever so challenging manner, whispering the words, "What you do for the least of these my BROTHERS, you do for me."

Well, damnit. Jesus, you are an inconvenience to me. But praise God for inconveniences and interruptions in a lifestyle that is often bent toward satisfying my own personal needs before loving others fully and sacrificially. This man, whose name I don't even know, has been on my mind a lot today. As I research and contact church members and community organizers about a community garden project I am hoping to begin in the near future, it becomes very real to me that the purpose of such a garden--which aims to provide food insecure families in the city of Medford healthy food to eat--is for people exactly like this man. If I don't find some way to incorporate him into that purpose and theology, I am walking about with a very great plank in my eye.

I am grateful for the challenge to direct love and justice in all areas of my life. May we all have our hearts, minds, and eyes open to the least of these all around us.