the homeless man who lived with us

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1-4)

Thinking about the Bible’s comments in James 2 on favoritism. We all claim to be against it, yet when was the last time you spoke directly to a homeless person? Or gave something that was valuable to you to someone else who really had a need for it? or spoke politely to a cashier in the grocery store, or the guy who sweeps the floors at WalMart?

It is easy to ignore some people.

We had a homeless man live with us for several months. His name was Joel. Joel was a big guy, my size, who had in the past ruled the camps in which he lived with his fists. By the time he came to us he had AIDS and was pretty sick. I offered him a room to live in because I knew that he would die if he had to live under the bridge where he was going to have to go. He had been living in an empty house with the permission of the people who owned it, but they had sold the house and he had to move. He and his friend were going to have to move out.

His friend was healthy, Joel was not. and Joel was a Christian, a brother in Christ. So he came. I got to know him, and a lot of his homeless friends. And I got to love him. He became my friend. He participated with my family in the first Thanksgiving and Christmas he had been in for over a decade. I gave him a couple of presents in a stocking and he just sat and looked at them. It had been so long since he had a family. He bought presents for Ella and our daughter and son with his food stamps.

It began to dawn on me that these were real people, people I had overlooked for years. Or at least looked at without really seeing them. I have always been an easy touch for homeless people, but I always give my money to Ella or something so I won’t be tempted to give it all away.

But having Joel with us changed my whole perception of people. He died on a Tuesday morning with no one around with him in the hospital. When I called to see how he was, they told me he was gone. When I told them that we would take care of him, they were glad that the country didn’t have to pay for the burial.

Oddly enough, he knew a lot of church people and his funeral was well-attended. He just didn’t like to be told what to do or have to follow rules. So he lived on the streets until he was just too sick when he came to us.

I miss him. I only knew him for less than a year, but he made an impact on me. I have never looked at a homeless person or even one of the guys who stand out on the parking lots the same after knowing him.