Give Love

So this last week was an amazing week. I work on campus at the Baptist Student Ministry and we hosted an event on called “Give Love”. It is an event that was designed to raise awareness for hunger as well as to encourage students to look at how they are living their lives. The event was challenging both spiritually and even physically. The tagline for “Give Love” was “what are you giving?” It took place the whole week of November 3^rd-7^th. We did a homeless demonstration on Monday, put out signs and did numerous demonstration on Tuesday through Thursday and on Friday we took a group to Dallas Life and spent the night with the homeless.

Through spending the night with the homeless I was impacted. I talked to numerous people who were not necessarily homeless but jobless. They were broken, lost,  people with addictions and emotional pain. It broke my heart to see the sin and selfishness that consumed some of them, but it was good reminder of how desperate the world is of a Savior. I learned that “homeless” or jobless people need love, need encouragement, and most lacked education. Most of the people didn’t want to be there but their situations caused them to be. I was educated about the homeless people living on the streets. I was told that most people that live on the street are content with where they are at; most enjoy living with nothing but a sign. Could be laziness, could be contentment, could be the sense of freedom, but regardless the one thing that I did realize is as a Christian I am called to give whether that is love, money, or time. So again the tagline rang in my head: “What are you giving?” and if I had to be completely honest then I would have to say nothing.

Through my experiences with “Give Love”, I was very skeptical and judgmental of homeless people. I viewed them as thieves, lazy, and not good enough, but I learned something more important. Even though some people might be like that, whether they steal from me or not, I am not the judge, all I am called to do is to give. Jesus said in Luke 6:30-31, “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  So what are you giving?