"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had."
-Acts 4:32
There is a certain beauty to homelessness. We have yet to go on our outreach to homeless people, but today myself and a couple other people in the class were given an assignment to create several videos for an organization called Greenhaven farms. One of these videos is a sort of orientation/instructional video.
Greenhaven farms is a 7 acre farm situated 2 and a half hours outside of the GTA. It is run by a family who have a huge heart for people who have ended up on the streets, and they make it their mission to help people feel love. Their goal is not to rehabilitate, and their goal is not change people. Obviously, they hope that a change will come about in a person through love being shown to them, but they do not dedicate their time and energy to specifically changing a person.
Quite often the people they take in have spent the majority of their life living on the street, and when you live on the street there is no such thing as ownership. Wes and Maureen described it as everyone shares because no one thinks to do otherwise. Wes knew a homeless man who was actually employed, but from the time it took him to get from his workplace to the bank he had already given away all his money to people who needed things!
Take a bike for example. If a homeless person sees a bike sitting outside a shop on the street and it is not chained, they will assume they are allowed to use it because they need to use it at that exact second. When they are finished, they may bring it back, but they are more likely to pass it off to someone else who needs a bike at that exact moment. If it is raining and homeless man passes an unattended umbrella--whether it is in a stand with a price tag or not--he will take it because he needs it. He may bring it back, or he may pass it on. Keep in mind they are not taking these things with the intention of stealing, because stealing is not in their vocabulary.
In the world of homelessness, objects become little more than tools. There is no value placed on anything other than what it is able to do. I find this beautiful. Imagine if all of humanity agreed to live this way: completely unselfish, and only using things out of necessity, and never claiming ownership over something that you don't constantly need. Say you are out on the street at night. It's cold and you don't have a jacket. A homeless man sees you need a jacket, and he has a jacket AND a sweater. The jacket is clearly warmer as it doesn't allow air to pass through its material. He will give you the jacket.
That is Christ-like!! These are people who are viewed as scum! Society frowns upon homeless people because they are of the impression that these people are violent, selfish drug-addicts who only pollute the earth. From what I've heard so far, I'd rather call a homeless person a friend than the average North American.
I just found this absolutely beautiful and thought I would share it with you all to think about and ponder, and perhaps even apply it to your own life. I am not saying abandon all ships and throw away everything you own for the sake of others--unless you feel God is telling you to do so--I am simply asking you to consider your lifestyle and the one I just described to you. Who do you find to be a more desirable companion?
Interesting insight.
ReplyDeleteThe underlying concept that gives rise to ownership is really that of separation. As human beings, particularly in Western Civilization, we define a Community and Society as a collection of individuals, which implies, one individual is separate from the other.
This is in contrast to the idea of viewing ourselves as an intricate part of greater whole (God), which is an inseparable unit.
This sheds a new light on ownership and makes ownership a community term rather than an individual term. In that context, sharing becomes a natural part of community life because ownership belongs to the community and not the individual. In this setting, there is no change of ownership when a community member passes something of value to another member.
(Does this remind you of Acts 4:32 ?)