Yesterday God brought Faida into the prayer room with the fall breeze. I first met her on a steamy summer day which brought her into the Sacred Space that she might escape the sweltering heat. An artist by trade, she works out of the house next door. She has a passion not only for creating beauty with her hands but with her heart as well as she seeks to bring hope and relief to our city’s homeless.
She shares with me on this day how she is up against a battle with the powers that be who stand in the way of her providing transitional housing that will assist the homeless in getting back on their feet. The facility that she is working on is not ‘up to code.’
Is a cardboard box up to code? A park bench? Under the buttresses of a bridge? Ah, but our city fathers have determined that these are too good for society’s outcasts. Human beings.
I am infuriated over a news story last night that spoke of how we can rid our city of the homeless. Wouldn’t Jesus be proud (sarcasm intended)? How many of those powers that be personages who lead our ‘fine’ city attend their antiseptic churches each Sunday and listen to the words of the Savior and yet for the sake of appearances seek to cast off our own ‘least of these?’ Just sweep them away with the messes that their living makes. They make our city look less pretty. Let’s just pretend that the pain and suffering of broken lives is not there. And that will make us all feel better. After all, then we will not have to do anything about it. Just ignore it, and maybe it will all go away. Heaven help us.
Bless you, sister Faida. God smiles on you and your work. May he work his magnificent power on your behalf
She shares with me on this day how she is up against a battle with the powers that be who stand in the way of her providing transitional housing that will assist the homeless in getting back on their feet. The facility that she is working on is not ‘up to code.’
Is a cardboard box up to code? A park bench? Under the buttresses of a bridge? Ah, but our city fathers have determined that these are too good for society’s outcasts. Human beings.
I am infuriated over a news story last night that spoke of how we can rid our city of the homeless. Wouldn’t Jesus be proud (sarcasm intended)? How many of those powers that be personages who lead our ‘fine’ city attend their antiseptic churches each Sunday and listen to the words of the Savior and yet for the sake of appearances seek to cast off our own ‘least of these?’ Just sweep them away with the messes that their living makes. They make our city look less pretty. Let’s just pretend that the pain and suffering of broken lives is not there. And that will make us all feel better. After all, then we will not have to do anything about it. Just ignore it, and maybe it will all go away. Heaven help us.
Bless you, sister Faida. God smiles on you and your work. May he work his magnificent power on your behalf
