Brown Bag Ministry: Making A Difference One Sandwich At A Time

It’s simple really: feed the hungry, the homeless, and the forgotten. Matthew 25:35 says, “For I was hungry, and you fed me.” It has always broken my heart to see the people on the street corner holding their “Will work for food” cardboard signs. More times than not, I have given them money. Then I began to think, I could do something more for them. I could do something more practical. I could help feed them. I could be part of the “Give us this day our daily bread” thing. I know many people who say these people may be scam artists, but many of them aren’t. It isn’t for me to know. The main reason my heart breaks for these people is because I know it could be me. It could be any of us. We’re all just a pink slip away from desperation.

I understand and “to a point” agree with the author, except at one specific point. We are not all “one pink slip away from desperation”. People who are really willing to work, always seem to find a job. Or they have made other plans to cover them in tough times, or they move to a place where they can find a job. Most of the people who are holding the cardboard signs have other problems far outweighing the need of a meal.

So those 12+ million who are currently unemployed in America just want to be out of work? Of course that number only those on the “Unemployment Roles” it doesn’t count another 5 to 8% who have been unemployed so long they can’t get benefits any longer.

My neighbor who has been an engineer for 30 years and got laid off 16 months ago, and has been on hundreds of interviews, and has now lost her cars, and her home, and can’t support her child - just wants to live that way all of a sudden? She’s not really trying?

According to statistics more than 1/2 of all Americans are just one pay check away from being in dire trouble. And sir, in this economy people there are more unemployed than there are available jobs. In case you’re not aware, many of the jobs from which Americans have been laid off in this recession have disappeared. They no longer exist within our borders.

My aforementioned friend has applied in retail and at Fast Food for minimum wage and was told you’re over-qualified we won’t hire you.

I think you’re living in the past, friend. You’re one of those - they’re only homeless because they want to be - types. As the author acknowledges in the article, there is certainly some of that. I challenge you to go visit a homeless shelter any where in any major city in the U.S. today and you’ll be shocked at the number of families there. Families who were once “good people” like you.

Some are those of retirement age who lost everything when their 401K’s crashed.

Good for you, if you’re doing better. God Bless You - but how can you have no compassion for those who are in trouble due to no fault of their own?

I hope you never find yourself in their situation.

Real nice. Now let us look at some of those in the shelter. Before their loss of the job, what did their credit card payments look like? What kind of TV did they have? How many cell phones did their kids have? Cable, satellite TV, nice new car, eat out once a week, new home, etc?

Maybe the country needs to remember how our forefathers did it. By planning ahead, paying cash, and doing without when necessary. Maybe your neighbor should have paid off one of those cars when she had the good job? Then they couldn't have taken it away. Then she could use the car to go someplace where they still have jobs, or where she wouldn't need six figures to barely survive.

And maybe you can learn to talk about the message instead of attacking the messenger.

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