at thanksgiving people are asked what they are thankful for. this past week as i have served breakfast and lunch to the street people at sally ann and listened to them talk about sharing tents and burning 3 candles all night in their tent because it is so cold outside (2 degrees) i am so thankful that i have warm shelter, warm, dry clothes, enough food to eat and clean water to drink.
it bothers me that it is only 2 weeks into fall and it is already so cold. they are addicts or alcoholics or mentally ill, they are people that most of us don't care about but Jesus loves them, as much as He loves you and i, and i don't know how i can help them. my heart breaks thinking what we do or don't do for them, we do or don't do for Jesus. my heart breaks thinking of them living outside, in the cold, in the rain, in the snow, hungry and freezing.
i know Jesus said we would always have the poor. i always think of the poor in third world countries like africa and india, drinking dirty polluted water, going days without food, literally starving to death. now with the cold weather upon us i think of the poor in cold climates facing even worse conditions.
yesterday i found myself wondering which would be worse, dying of starvation or freezing to death.
i know i can't feel guilty that i am not one of the desperately poor but i always wonder if there isn't something more i could do.
so i am thankful that i am not desperately poor, living in a third world country, starving or freezing to death. and i am thankful that i am not one of our homeless people. and i am thankful that like them, Jesus loves me too.
what are you thankful for?
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