The Homeless

Right, so this Shane Claiborne book 'The Irressistable Revolution' that I'm reading is good. Really good in fact. Actually it's turning out to be one of those books that shakes you up and make you think - shit, have I really been missing the point all along.

The crux of it is that Christian living has bollocks all to do with doctrine. We don't really find Jesus jetting around Jerusalem staying in hotels and preaching a set of rules for getting saved. Hell no! Jesus was a homeless radical dude, making friends with the homeless, the needy and the outcast. What he did radically was that he LOVED PEOPLE.

So what the hell are we up to in our safe churches, dressed all smart on a Sunday morning, singing our hyms or worship songs, getting feel-good sermons and then going home to a massive Sunday lunch in our many roomed house? Why are we not out there with the homeless, loving those who have so little and actually breaking down then barriers of poverty that separate use from those who need.

So here I am in Crete, in the tourist trap of Harnier where there are homeless ladies on the street. And there I am, not knowing how to relate to them. Not wanting to give money for all the times that I've been warned that that is futile. And not knowing how to communicate let alone love them. I know this is perhaps not the place I need to be actually getting to grips with this issue, we have enough homless and poor in the UK that I should break through to first, but I still feel that confused tugg of confused love trying to be expressed in a gentle, honnest and effective way.