25 Jan How to Be as Happy as a Homeless Person

In the past two years, the unhoused community has become a significant presence at Samaritan’s Heart Mission Church. We open our doors on Sunday afternoon to individuals who don’t have a warm place to go during the cold weather months. As I write this, we had 109 guests on our most recent Sunday (Green Bay is experiencing a cold snap with sub-zero temperatures). Additionally, about a third of those joined us for Sunday morning service. I can say with all honesty that the 26 Sunday afternoons that we offer Warming in The Heart bring me tremendous joy.

That joy comes in part from being able to love and serve neighbors in need. A greater portion of that joy comes from the joy of our guests. No one wants to be unhoused. Those of us who have been blessed to have shelter our whole lives truly cannot understand housing insecurity. Yet so many of our guests who walk with Christ express an unimaginable inner peace and joy. Why?

Because they are trusting God, and perhaps more importantly, they are grateful for what they have. In fact, many are more grateful than people I know who have much, much more. They are thankful God is using our church to serve them. They are thankful for being able to come early and hear the Word. Gratitude is their default setting. No, this is not true of all our guests. It’s also not true of many who are blessed to a far greater extent than they realize. We get a great example of this from the Apostle Paul in Acts 16. Paul and his missionary partner Silas are attacked by a mob, flogged by trained professionals and then jailed for upsetting the local business community. What we read next is truly shocking:

25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. 26 Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! 27 The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. 28 But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!” Acts 16:25-28 (NLT)

Imagine being attacked by a mob, flogged by authorities and then jailed, and responding as they did. Singing, rejoicing, praising God that they are suffering for Him. No despair, no anger. And God responds with an earthquake that ultimately changes the chief jailer’s heart. Paul and Silas respond to that by expressing concern for the jailer’s safety!

Make no mistake, there is depression and despair in the unhoused community and understandably so. Many that we serve, however, react to their trials much as the way Paul and Silas responded to theirs. So, let this encourage you.

If you have a warm, safe place to live, a job, a car, and enough to eat, give thanks to God. If you are going through something difficult, you have a choice: you can let it rob your joy or strengthen your faith. I am grateful for the dozens of folks I get to spend four hours with at Warming in The Heart each week who choose the latter. I pray you do too!

Pastor Jerry Bader