homeless people

yesterday, with our orientation here, we broke off into several groups and visited old town pasadena, which is basically a long strip of upscale stores, restaurants, etc...   along the way, i counted at least 8 homeless people asking for money, which we seminary students more or less ignored.    there seems to be a large homeless population here in pasadena.   every time i walk by someone in that situation, i cringe.  i can't explain it fully, but it just really feels like my heart completely stops.   its a horrible feeling.   and then, thinking that a group of 14 seminary students is walking by these people doing the same thing...that stops my heart too.   i really hate it.

i tend to be an idealist at times.   i know i can't solve the world's problems... God gave His son for that.   however, i can have a role in doing something about a lot of the things in the world God detests (ie poverty).

so, last year i posted this question to a group of postmodern Christians on the ooze.com: "what do you do when you see homeless people or begging people on the street?"   i received some good responses:

-carry around peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and give them a few

-if you're with someone else, you can offer to bring the homeless person somewhere to buy them lunch/dinner/groceries

-give food stamps

-carry around packs of socks and give them new socks

-pray with them and pray for them

my heart is literally aching for people in these situations.  i don't care how they got there or what they did... this isn't how God meant for these people to live.   please pray for me so that next time i walk by a homeless person, i can be Godly to them and not shy away or ignore them.    Jesus died for them too, just as much as He died for us.