Don't talk to homeless people

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

Sometimes I just need to share a great story. This is a story that our CEO shared and it is impactful.

I’m sorry to disturb your Saturday evening and I felt compelled to share this…

Tonight I chose to take a walk around downtown Portland. I’m assuming that you all know Portland’s homeless crisis rivals that of New York, LA, San Fran, etc. On this particular walk I challenged myself to unplug and be aware of my surroundings.

Somewhere on this walk, an individual…let’s say a white male somewhere between 20-30…walked up to me and said “please…can you help me?” Now in most cases, I disgracefully admit. I would have put my head down and walked away in fear. And because I’ve been buoyed by our recent conversations, I chose to engage and offered this “I would love to help yet I have no cash on me. Can I still help?”. There was this awkward moment of silence (readily believing I was gonna die) and then this occurred:

Person 1: Would you just talk with me?

WOW! We then sat on a curb and for what seemed like minutes, which truly equated to over 60 minutes, I sat and listened and learned. I heard this story of a man who thought at one time he had it all and then for some reason lost it; lost his money, lost his wife and family, lost his self-worth, lost his reason to live. And because no one answered his cry for help, he felt his only option was to either live on the street and beg for money or kill himself! And I just cried.

When we finally stood and hugged, I shared who I was and the title I carried. His eyes lit up and he then said this;
I grew up in the Y!

And it was like someone punched me in the gut! I truly had no answer other than the obligatory response of “that’s great”. And yet when we parted and I walked towards home I wanted to turn and scream “I’m sorry we failed you.”

That’s a true story. That’s a story I think that deserves our air time! That’s a story I never ever ever want to hear again. So I now shout to all of you as we are figuring out who we are…do we really want to fail another human spirit?

So I invite you all of you, dear friends if you have not, to take a walk to listen, to learn. And let’s talk about that.

Or I can just shut up.

Happy Mother’s Day.

T

So don't talk to homeless people unless you want your world rocked and have Jesus stare you in the eye.

Thank you Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor for sharing.
You make Christ smile.

BTW-Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor updated his LinkedIn photo.



Blessings,
Roger