Re-discovering Passion
Tonight, I had an incredible opportunity to attend a fundraising dinner for a local non-profit which is a community of believers, walking with the homeless. Gospel, Inc is a grassroots organization where the volunteers and leaders are right out there, befriending the homeless of our amazing city.
I’ve been to these dinners before. A prayer, a speech, a sad video, they ask you for money, you fill out your envelope, you go home full of good food and with a few dollars less in your pocket. This wasn’t that dinner.
The light bulb came back on. My spark was re-ignited. I remembered.
I remembered making cookies and serving them on Christmas Eve with my daughter. (And if you know me, you know I don’t bake…that was LOVE) I remembered driving around with my aunt and my mother-in-law, feeding the homeless chili when the weather got cold. Most of all, I remembered being a 16-year-old girl, staying at the Bowery in New York City, a senior in high school, on my senior mission trip. We sat at a piano while a homeless man who was staying at the Bowery played and sang. I sat right next to him. The homeless man became a human. His gratitude and pure love poured over me. And I was the one who was supposed to be helping him! I don’t remember his name, but I remember his love and passion and understanding, his story.
In my heart, I have always felt called to help the homeless. But we need to help them beyond feeding them every day. Feeding them is first priority, but there must be more. Why do we have a shortage of jobs and an overage of homeless? While I do understand the reality that some will never be able to work due to circumstances beyond our control, some are able to work, they just don’t know how. I was able to come out of the dinner, with a new idea, a new perspective to solve two problems with one solution. Let’s help these men and women work, in good jobs, and make it a joint effort.
Is this going to work? I don’t know. What I do know, is I found my spark again. MY cause… My reasoning.
