My family and I feel very blessed to live walking distance to the beach. As I have gotten into the routine of taking walks with my son after work we have gotten to know the handful of homeless men living near us. They live in the canyon and under the pedestrian bridge. A year ago we invited Julius to my son’s 1-year birthday party. He came, with a card and a gift. You could tell he was not comfortable staying and eating with us, so we gave him a plate of food to take with him (picture: http://www.enyarts.com/Gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2131).

About 6 months ago (as I was reading A New Kind of Christian and Everything Must Change) I had this provoking thought: what if Jesus appeared and decided to live with me for a week? At first I imagined he and I would have similar, if not identical schedules (easy for me to assume as a Christian). But as I thought on this longer I realized how different our schedules would probably be. How Jesus might spend his day would [absolutely] so radically challenge my preconceptions/notions of what Christianity looks like—I might even “disagree” with him! (His own disciples often did)

With my new thinking on what living like Jesus might look like I decided to pour myself into the “marginalized” (lost, lonely, outcast, etc) God had placed in my path and in my life. I started taking my time as I talked with them, looking for ways to meet their needs. I came to a personal conviction that Jesus would probably be found sitting under the bridges with them, loving them, engaging them in conversation, ministering to them. I realized I needed to go there too. That is how I got to know “Gator.” And so over the next several months I sat close to him, I ate at his table (on his milk crate), I drank what he was drinking, I listened to his words, I let myself be injured by his pain, and I laughed (often cried laughing) at his stories.

So what if we as a community of Jesus followers made a concerted effort to love the marginalized (in this instance, the homeless) in this practical way - learning their names, taking the time to sit and get to know them...