"Why do y'all do what y'all do?"

*after re-reading this, I realized how much I rambled and jumped around.. and how I never actually got to the points i wanted to make about working with the ones who won't help themselves.. but I felt like I said some other things that were on my heart, so I'll try it again another day, blessings!!*

When we first got involved with working with the homeless, the mainq question I always got was "Why do yall want to help the ones that don't want to help themselve?"  To me, this was always a very simple answer... because they need it the most!  I don't believe anyone wakes one morning and says "Today is a new day... I will be broke, I will drink till I pass out, I will shoot up till I pass out, I will smoke till I cough blood, I will sleep with a rock as a pillow, because I don't want any help!"  Christ clearly calls us to love unconditionally... I am the very first to admit that I do not know my Bible well at all... I don't know all the answers, but I do know that Christ didn't start his mission on earth by gathering a group of well educated men with all the right answers.  It seems as if the ones who did the most for the kingdom, were the ones that we would so easily point out as "unhelpable"... Many of the men and women we encounter on the street openly choose to do drugs and choose to abuse alcohol, but after one conversation with one of these precious people, it's clear that the choice isn't as easly as we would all like to think.  Addiction is a much more powerful demon than anyone will ever admit it... Drugs and alcohol are the easiest things to turn to when things get rough...Christ calls us to love the "LEAST OF THESE"... not the "THESE that deserve it"... because let's all be honest, who really deserves it... I sure as hell don't... The most real encounter of helping someone who would not help themselves was with our brother Marion.  Week after week after week, Marion rejected our invitations to join us at Hope House... usually with choiced worded sentences... One morning we were driving around, and saw Marion sitting on a bench... I can remember driving right past him and saying "I don't even want to deal with it today"... and I'm pretty sure God literally slapped me in the back of the head... After a few minutes, we turned around and drove back towards Marion, reluctantly asking him if he'd like to join us... and he said Yes... he freakin' said yes!!!   We had been after him for MONTHS!!!  Rejection after rejection, cursing after cursing, we kept on with a free offering of love... and he finally accepted... but we almost didn't even give him the chance that day... Marion was found dead a few months later... I don't know if he died peaceful, I don't know if he died hurting, I don't know if he died intoxicated... I do know he died knowing that someone cared about him...  So if you ever think to yourself, "why do I wanto help THAT person, it won't even matter"... just remember, you never, EVER know when those chances will run out, and you never, ever know when that one time, really will matter... God bless, GOd love!!