I travel a great deal throughout the country and run across homeless people in my peripheral. I intentionally do not zone them out, but rather focus on the zone I am in! I am on a mission to go where I need to go in the quickest mode I can to accomplish what I set out to do. A recent trip to San Antonio changed my perspective, otherwise stated, a Blue Dot moment. Prior to this event I assumed every homeless person was unmotivated and believed generally all were in their circumstances because of poor choices. If they want to get off the street all they have to do is make a decision to do so. Then the Spirit guided me to look in the eyes of one homeless person and saw what I never saw before, a mentally ill person. This is not to say that all homeless are mentally ill because they are not.
Many of us don’t intentionally zone people out rather we are simply in a zone with a specific agenda to accomplish with no time for interruptions. We have been instructed to look though the lenses of Christ. This was the clearest example for me and after this experience I felt a spirit tug to do something to help these people. Perhaps Living Springs could consider providing care/support in some way to the mentally ill homeless in the greater Columbia, SC area.