Where were you?

Dshadna · German Shepherd Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 344

When I was hungry and had no food, where were you?
When I was homeless, and on the streets, where were you?
When I had only the clothes on my back and a back pack with a Bible, where were you?
When I had nothing to drink, where were you?
When I was being beaten and abused, were were you?
When I was being held down and raped for 14 years by my step-father, and told you about it, where were you? What did you do, when I told you?
When I was ready to end my life, because I was so lonely and forgotten, where were you?
When I swallowed a bottle of pills, and washed it down with alcohol, when I slit my wrists, and was bleeding, where were you?
When each of my babies died before they could be born, where were you?

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God himself will be asking you that come judgement day, but I'm asking you now.

Where Were You? (I'm asking this more as *The Church as a Whole*, than personally, but Where were you?

All of those questions are real...all of them pertain directly to me, and as the Christians that you are, it pertains to you. Look around you, and see who is next to you. Where are you, in their pain and anguish?

*****
When I was homeless, and on the streets, where were you? When I was living on the steets, sleeping on porches in bitter cold weather, with no blanket or coat, were were you? When I had no where to go, and no one to take me in, where were you?

When I was hungry and had no food, where were you? When I had nothing to drink, where were you?
When I was eating out of garbage dumpsters, eating the half-eaten food that others threw away, where were you? When I was going without food for literly a week at a time where were you? When I was drinking half-drunk cokes and sour milk from the garbage cans, where were you?

When I had only the clothes on my back and a back pack with a Bible, where were you? When you saw that I only had one set of clothes, and they were dirty, where were you? When you saw that I had no coat to shield against the cold, bitter, winter wind, where were you?

When I was being held down and raped for 14 years by my step-father, and told you about it, where were you? What did you do, when I told you?
When you learned about the abuse I was suffering, when I told you directly, when I asked for your help, what did you do? What did you say?

When I was being beaten and abused, were were you? What did you do when you saw me each Sunday, with new bruises? When I wore the long black sleeves to cover the bruises, what did you do? What did you say? How did you act?

When I was ready to end my life, because I was so lonely and forgotten, where were you? When I told you that I felt that there was no reason to live, what did you say? What did you do?

When I swallowed a bottle of pills, and washed it down with alcohol, when I slit my wrists, and was bleeding, where were you? When I lay in a hospital bed, speaking to no one, doing nothing but staring at the wall, Where were you? Did you visit me? Did you do anything at all to help me in my time of desperation and despair?

Were you there in my desperation and my anguish and pain? Did you give me comforting words of compassion and love? Did you visit me and give me a reason to feel wanted and worthy? When you saw the bruises and knew the beatings I was taking every day, in the name of love, did you do anything to help? Or did you stand by, silent? Did you bring me food when you knew I was hungry? Did you give me water, when you knew I was thirsty?

When each of my babies died before they could be born, where were you?When I was in pain and agony over each of their lives lost before birth, where were you? What did you do?

*****

Yes, a lot of questions, and for many the answer is, you weren't there.

Even though I attended a church of about 500-1000 people at the time I was homeless and hungry, there was only one woman who was there. There was only one woman who every Wednesday and Sunday night brought me a sack lunch with sandwiches, fruit and a snack. One woman who told me that her kids decided they wanted hot lunches the next day instead of the sack lunches already prepared. One woman, who just left them on top of my backpack, and would never have been found out, except that I walked up to her in the Nursery where she worked and I sometimes helped out, and saw her leaving them...and asked her why. Only one woman who never made me feel less than good enough, and who had compassion and love.

When I was on the streets, homeless, cold and tired in the bitter winter of Chicago, there was only one man who offered me a blanket to wrap up in and a porch to sleep on to get out of the snow and driving wind. Only one man who wasn't ashamed to see a young woman sleeping on his porch, and offered her the little that he had to give.

When I was being molested by my step father at the age of 4-7, and then from the age of 7-12, when I was being anally raped by him on an almost nightly basis, there was no one there, but God!!

When I was 12 years old, and it was my birthday, and my step-father decided it was time for me "to become a woman" and began raping me until I was almost 18, even though I told my mother, a teacher and the pastor's wife, no one did anything about it. No one took me to a safe place and helped me to get out of the abuse. When both of my brothers tried to rape me, no one came forward to say they knew about it and to tell the courts so that I could get out, not even my mother. Only God was there.

Not until I was 15 and a new family came to our church with two daughters close to my age, did I ever find a safe place to be. They met me on their first Sunday there, and immediatly asked their mother, if this brand new girl they'd never met before, could come home with them. This wonderful woman of Christ immediatly opened the doors to her home and her heart, and taught me the true meaning of a compassionate Christian. She did not know what was going on in my home life, but felt God leading her to offer me a safe place. I spent many a night there, the only time in my life as a child/teenager, that I ever felt safe.

When I was 18 and my mother told me she wished I'd never been born, she wished she had gone through with an abortion, that she wished that when I was 3 days old and almost died from breathing problems, that I had died, it was only God who was there as I swallowed bottles of pain pills and alcohol. Only God was there to see me through the night and the next 4 days of utter despair and illness as I almost died from the attempted overdose. It was only God who told me I was loved, and I was wanted. After this attempt, it was only that Christian woman I described above, who held me and cried and told me I was so worthy of love, and that I was and would always be like her own daughters, and who for the last 22 years, has treated me as such, even when I told her my secret, that I was/am a lesbian...only she told me that did not change how she felt about me, and then has proceeded to prove that God's love He had given her for me was true and compassionate and unconditional.

This same woman is one of the few who knew about the bruises from my then husband, and the times he tried to kill me. She is the only one who came to my defense, until the night my husband almost did kill me, and my neighbors got me out of that place, and allowed me to live with them for 6 months. It was total strangers that different friends of mine knew, who took me in for a week or a month at a time, after I left my abusive husband, that offered me shelter and compassion...not the Church. It was a battered woman's shelter that gave me shelter for 4 months and helped me to find a place to call my own, and gave me furniture and food until I could get foodstamps.

When I was still staying with Strangers, looking for a place I could call my own, and felt that I'd never have a safe place to be, when I cut my wrists and was bleeding, it was this woman who heard God's voice telling her to come and find me...and she is the one who took me to a hospital to be stiched up and taken care of. She is the one person who was there while I was in the hospital, despondent, and despairing of life, who came most every day, even though it was an hour drive each way, and sat for the one hour visiting that was allowed, even though I rarely said a word to her or even looked at her. She is the one, who sat beside my hospital bed and read the Bible to me, Psalms 23, for one, and told me....God is here, God knows you, God loves you...and so do I. Only she cried for me and the pain and anguish I was in.

When my babies all died before they could be born, because the doctor's couldn't figure out what was wrong with my body, and couldn't figure out how to save them, it was God, who saw my tears of pain and anguish. It was only one or two women of the Church who had suffered the same kind of loss, who came to me and gave me hugs, and words of encouragement, and who dried my tears each time I cried.

*****

Why tell you all this....because the next time you see someone....remember, you don't know where they have been, you don't know what God has brought them out of. You don't know what their needs are, and how God has been meeting those needs. You don't know what God has told them is their place in life and in His plan. You don't know where they are in their walk with Christ, and you don't know how He has been leading them.

You don't know the joy that serving Christ has brought them, and how many people they have helped come to Christ through their lives and their testimony of God's great love. You don't know the lessons that God has been teaching them, and how He has been showing His unconditional love to them when no one else would. You don't know--but He does.

*****

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Matthew 25:35-40

RevJP · Moderator Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 7005 Location: USA

No reply I could post could do justice to this eloquent post. Just know that it has been read and you have been heard.

JP
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Dshadna · German Shepherd Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 344

admin · Posted: Mon May 05, 2003 2:48 am Post subject:

I have been homeless twice in my life. My experience has been that there is a lot of places for support and help for those that want to help themselves.
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Dshadna · German Shepherd Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 344

RevJP · Moderator Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 7005 Location: USA

are there no workhouses?...
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Dshadna · German Shepherd Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 344

RevJP · Moderator Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 7005 Location: USA

That was a short quote from "A Christmas Carol" when Scrooge was shown the starving children. He was asking what business was it of his that there were starving children since his taxes paid for workhouses, orphanages, etc.

The reply was a resounding "Mankind is your business!"

Sorry if my meaning was obtuse, but I was trying to point out that although there may be resources out there for the homeless and unfortunate, mankind is STILL our business.
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Dshadna · German Shepherd Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 344