Poverty Warrior as you work to overcome disappointment consider the season. When you are working with those in poverty, those that you are seeking to serve are at their own season. For many that you work with initially they will be at the soil preparation stage. Street life and poverty in general generally make folks distrust people (particularly those in authority), to guard their hearts and in short to have hardened soil. As you work with this group you will need to be sensitive. It is likely that they will lie to you during this stage. It is true that your ability to help them is limited because you are not working with truth. Work with what they have given you. When I first started working in this field, I was often angry and bitter. I am here to help them, why are they lying to me? Don’t they know that I am trying to help them have a better life? Understand, my friend, many have come and offered to help them. Some offering their help had ulterior and often evil motives. Others belittled them as they helped them. As I have grown up in this work, I realized that I often have looked down on these men and women. All of these things come together to create a concrete like field in which you have to work.
Imagine that I take a rose and seek to plant it in a parking lot. The asphalt or concrete will not be the most nurturing place for this rose to grow. It can happen though. Sometimes a flower perseveres against the odds of blossoming. But it is rare and will always live in a dangerous, fragile state. Many trying to help men and women living on the street by giving them handouts are forcing them to try to live in that less hospital environment. The longer they stay there the more likely they will perish in that hardened state. My odds improve if I can move the flower to a more fertile field. Unfortunately, the truth is that these men and women have hardened their hearts, you must work with what you got.
The process of making this solid field ready for seeds will take time. Warning you will not be able to force the concrete to break up with a sledgehammer. The only thing that can melt the hard heart is agape love. You will love them even though you will see little progress. You will need to love them even though they appear to be harsh. You will need to love them and not see any progress. But the hardened heart only melts from deep inside. The work is actually taking down the foundation of their distrust, giving them love for hate and granting them as much hope as you can create. This will take time. If you choose to take them a sandwich, take two and then sit down with them and eat together. Listen more than you speak. They have incredible stories, and some might even be true. When the time is right you can share your own hurts, habits and hangups. Do not share to try to one up them but to level the field. Never make them look up to you. Poverty warrior, you are not better then they are. You might have a home, cars, stuff and more. You might have education, a sharp mind and awesome wisdom. You just might have healthy relationships with friends and family. But you are not better than these men and women. Humility will melt the foundation that is holding up the concrete.
