A Tale of Two Worlds.

The city life is incredible. One minute I'll be in Starbucks with some of my friends, then the next minute we'll be sitting on the side of the road giving a homeless friend of ours coffee and something to eat. Having The Office marathons with some of my GREATEST friends! Running to Cold Stone for free (haha... whatever) ice cream. Pizza nights in the apartment etc.

But then there's everything else. Getting up early, going to class, devouring delicious chunks of spiritual goodness that our lecturers feed us every time they open their mouths to speak. Living within a community, where every SINGLE person is completely different yet absolutely beautiful. Walking out onto the streets of our neighborhood and running into Meth addicts, alcoholics and the such. Then walking five minutes up the road to Union Square, where you are surrounded by people with huge shopping bags, snooty business men in their fancy suits, shined shoes, talking on their cell phones, and the three story Macy's, with it's three story-high banner "Celebrating 150 years of 'oohs' and 'ahhs'." Puke.

I love it here. My heart aches for this city. I've been spending a lot of my time with my homeless neighbors, getting to know them, and I realized something. They are alone. Completely alone. No one to care for or help them. And here they stay, living life from day to day, bottle to bottle, hit to hit. A lot of people look down on the homeless. Call them lazy, worthless, selfish. To be honest, these are some of the sweetest people I have ever met and they are NOT here just because they are lazy. Yes, there are the few who are here because they DON'T want to work, and they just want to chill, but that is such a small percentage it doesn't even count. So many of these people are out here because they fought in the Vietnam war, and due to the horrible things they had seen they went crazy, got depressed, then started drinking or doing crack. There are many who are physically or mentally challenged, alone, abandoned, and helpless. There are some "street kids", who are now in their 50s, who were abandoned by their parents when they were younger, and got addicted to heroine or crack early on; sometimes in their early teens. And now they're here, on the streets, abandoned by their families who don't want anything to do with them, handed money by the state that they use to buy more drugs rather than to get help. They may have every intention of getting help but when you're so addicted to drugs there is really nothing you can do.

My heart hurts for these beautiful people... So many of them LOVE Jesus but they have no one to keep them accountable. And if they stopped drugs or alcohol cold-turkey they would most definitely die. Their bodies are so dependent on those things that they would go into convulsions and die. Every time I walk out of my door I want to cry... But then Joe-Moe walks up to me and yells, "Pretty feet! Pretty feet!" or I run into Wallis and have a good conversation about God and space aliens, or Jeff finds me and introduces me and Erica as "the two angels God sent him", and I get this smile in my heart that won't go away.

Then I walk to Union Square with Manny and Hannah and play guitar and sing while sitting on the ground, getting snotty looks from shoppers and stuck-up businessmen. And I realize something...


I live in between two different worlds. One filled with people in desperate need. Spiritual, physical and mental needs. Addicted and alone. Aching yet searching for light. Then the other. Packaged all pretty on the outside. Seeming together, well off and with it. But inside aching in the same way. Addicted. Maybe not to drugs or alcohol, but to materialism. Things. Stuff. They are posers. Pretending to be something their not. Spending money they probably do not have. Looking down on those who have less than them and filling a void with things. Worthless things. A shopping spree at Macy's because they feel like it.

And I hurt. I want to love. Love these people. Care for these people. Bring Christ to dark places...

Jesus us doing a work in me and around me and I am excited.