08 Feb I’d Like You to Meet My Friends

I’d like to introduce you to about 100 friends of mine. They visit Samaritan’s Heart Mission Church each week. They are as diverse a group of friends as you would ever encounter. They are from varying racial and ethnic backgrounds, different geographic backgrounds and all have unique life stories. They all have one thing in common: they are unhoused.

Samaritan’s Heart began opening its doors on Sunday afternoons from November to April to give the unhoused a place to stay warm, play bingo, watch sports on TV and just fellowship with others. We have been blessed to have eight other churches join us. We call it “Warming in The Heart.” While we are providing a service, I am very serious when I call them friends. One of the blessings I’ve had is that I’ve gotten to know many of them. I would like you to get to know them too, because I’ve discovered that there are a lot of misconceptions about the unhoused community. I used to hold many of them during my career as a talk show host and presumed to speak with authority about a population that I knew nothing about.

Let me tell you about my friends:

• Some of them have jobs that don’t pay enough to afford housing.
• Some of them are retired and were doing just find until the soaring price of rent drove them out of their homes.
• Some struggle with mental illness.
• Some struggle with addiction.
• Some struggle to find work after returning from incarceration.
• Some struggle with all of the last three of items I listed.
• 100% of them need love, compassion, understanding and a judgement-free zone.
• What they don’t need is someone callously telling them to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”

There is no greater joy than having a guest tell us that they have found or are close to finding a place to live. It is also a great joy for them to tell us they feel loved and respected at our church. I wrote recently at Fresh Start how I marvel at the joy of knowing Jesus that I see in many of our guests. They have a peace about them that many people who are far better off financially have never experienced. So, please don’t judge my friends:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:1-2 (NIV)

That passage is often misunderstood. Most readers believe Jesus is cautioning you against judging others, because other people might judge you. That’s true, they might. But what Jesus is cautioning is that as you judge others, so God will judge you.

So, if you see my friends gathered in a city park, or on sidewalks, or anywhere else, please don’t judge them. Pray for them. And instead of looking away, you can smile or wave. My friends would like that.

“Don’t judge my story based on the chapter you walked in on.” (Anonymous)

Pastor Jerry Bader