Lessons From A Vagrant

For reasons beyond my comprehension, I always wonder why it is human nature to endlessly pursue power and money. Perhaps with both, people can look up to us or maybe to some, it helps boost confidence or worse still, we could employ authority to our advantage.

What about the less fortunate, those who are homeless on the streets? What are their ambitions?

Through a lesson I believe God in Christ Jesus wanted me to experience to teach me, the lesson transform my entire perspective about being arrogant with intelligence, riches and power with authority.

I was waiting for my mum doing her shopping at the local marketplace.

Right from across the street was what society would label a beggar. I designate them as the less fortunate.

I am habitually generous towards such needy people. But today I don't feel generous and just don't want to be bothered. Perhaps it could be due to having to walk across the busy street, constantly with various vehicles streaming past.

"I hope he isn't hungry, not very hungry, hopefully" I prayed.

Then suddenly, guilt, like a sudden heavy downpour started flooding my conscience over my selfish reaction. "After all, it's not really that troublesome crossing the street" as I tried communicating with my inner being to console my guilt.

To fix my weakness, I quickly summoned for help- beseeching my Saviour Jesus to sent His Spirit, the Holy Spirit to strengthen my weaken and poor spirit to minister to this less fortunate brother.

Keeping the less fortunate brother in focus, I walked across the street, continually praying, asking my Saviour Jesus to partner me in this deed.

"Do you need any help?" I asked not realizing what a silly question that was.

When he answered me, I was convinced that was undeniable the words of my Saviour Jesus.

Today, foolishness humbled me. Today, an insignificant person the society at large regarded as nothing humiliated me. Today, my Saviour Jesus elucidate to me the truthful meaning behind the verses in 1 Corinthians 1: 27-28, Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.

His answer was simple and unpretentious.

He responded with this answer, "I do need help but don't we all need help of some sort?"

At that moment, I hope the road would just opened up a big hole and gulped my pride and arrogance down, including my prideful wisdom.

Don't we all needed some form of help always? Have we forgotten that we were, but dust? The Almighty Creator remembers that we are dust in Psalms 103:14, For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust. Every breath we take, we live by His abundance mercy and grace in His unfailing love.

God's still small voice boom loudly, shattering the pride in me. God demonstarted to me that His foolishness is greater than my wisdom.

For apart from Jesus, I can do nothing on my own.

I needed help. Maybe not for food or a roof over my head, but I needed help.

I dug into my pocket, pulled out a wad of notes in various denominations and gently shove the bundle into his hands, with his message of humility incessantly slamming hard into my arrogant wisdom trying to dislodge them from my brain and out my skull, squeezing through the passage way of my nose or ears.

It was as though Jesus my Saviour is nailing His message through this vagrant unto my heart, reminding me that it was His perfect grace sustaining my imperfect weakness all this time.

This lesson taught me that without God in his son, my Saviour Jesus, I am but only a sinner, created out of dust, made perfect and worthy by His blood in His unfailing love at the cross.

No matter who you are, a wealthy or a poor man, you can do the will of God, to feed, to loan, to assist in every way, because you have experienced God's mercy and grace in his unfailing love through his son, our Saviour Jesus at the cross. It is His love at the cross that filled our hearts to grow in us a passion to minister to the less fortunate.

Even if it's just a simple greeting or a compliment, you can give that.

You never know when you may see someone who appears to have it all. They are waiting on you to give them what they don't have. A different perspective on life, a glimpse at something beautiful, a respite from daily chaos, that only you through a torn broken world can see.

That person could be just a vagrant wandering the streets. Allow me to warn you, don't judge a person by their appearance, because it could be Jesus our Lord and Saviour at work.

Remember this, whoever we think we are, we fail when we chose to live apart from Jesus Christ, who alone loves us.

When we are undeserving, on our way to eternal doom, God in Christ Jesus came to save us at the cross because God, the Father, Saviour and Creator remembered that we are dust!