Jeff Johnson is the Executive Director of Mile High Ministries which is essentially the overall umbrella ministry for which we are all working. He teaches one of our classes every Monday which essentially can only be described as a streets smart class with a strong emphasis on the biblical perspective of urban poverty and city life. Two weeks ago something in particular stuck with me in his class and has had a profound impact on the way I see and interact with the poor. We discussed our train of thought when we encounter the homeless and specifically pan-handlers our usual tendencies when crossing the path of the poor.
Example: You're walking down the street and cross the path of a man. He embodies the word "filthy" - even makes my usual shower habits appear as healthy. Hair in dreads, body untastefully tattooed, clothes not exactly made for Nordstrums Spring Catalogue, and as your pase quickens to pass by him as quickly as possible his mouth speratically utters a few words that shake off a few of the many dirt crums stuck in his unkempt beard. What I usually tend to do is pretend to stare off into space and pretend to have no knowledge of his existence except for maybe that one moment when your gaze meets his and you are forced to awkwardly extend a semi-cordial nod his way while purposefully ignoring the reality that he has something to say to you. Whether or not you can understand him is irrelevent because either way he is unheard. Either way an assumption is made of who he is, what he wants, and especially what he needs. I assume that I know what is necessary for this man to "succeed;" for him to "make something of himself." And thus my pre conceived bias drives me to no longer treat him as a man with value, but someone who is lacking what I THINK might be missing in his life.
Here is the moral of the story: When you listen to this man, when you take the time to connect and try to get on his level for 10 minues, and when you give him the chance to TELL YOU what he needs and what he really wants, you give him back his dignity and respect as a human being who has the ability to decide for himself what he needs. It's those little things that allow one to build a genuine relationship with this man - one from which both him and yourself can grow as equal human beings together.
There's a little section in the novel Infinite Jest that speaks volumes to this. A brother essentially bets his cynical older brother that he can dress "up" like a homeless man, go out in the street, and hold out his hand, and ask for someone to touch him (and that he will succeed in having someone touch him). You should read it (I'll bring it tomorrow). Anyways, time (including handshakes, or high fives) come in a lot less sparingly than money.
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