Recently, I got a taste of what if feels like to be helpless. I had rotator cuff surgery and when it was over, I was sent home in a sling and a drug induced stupor. When I finally came around, I soon realized my life was about to change. I couldn’t dress myself, my left-handed attempts at feeding myself were a disaster and all that work I planned to do from home (wink, wink) just went out the window. It was the most frustrating feeling I can ever remember having. But now, weeks later, it is all a faint memory. It was temporary. I’m back to normal, or as normal as I’ve ever been.
My situation got me to thinking. A lot of the men, women and children we serve at our shelters have that same feeling of helplessness and it isn’t temporary. It is lasting and relentless. One man said to me, “Every day is the worst day of my life.” They feel hopeless because there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. Because of my short stint of helplessness,I can relate in a small way to the feelings of frustration, depression and even anger because of the lack of control over their situation.
It helps to sometimes to walk in someone else’s shoes for a while. To see things from their point of view. In a small way, I have more compassion for someone who feels helpless. I understand why someone would snap at someone who is just trying to help them. It makes a little more sense to me now when I see someone who just wants to roll over and give up. I can see how thin a person’s patience can wear over time.
But I also learned something else. God has placed us here at Faith Mission and Faith Refuge as caregivers to the helpless. That is a very special role. Caring for the helpless, according to the scriptures, is the true test of our religion. Listen to James 1:27, “Religion that our Father accepts is this: to look after the orphans and the widows in their distress …” There have never been more helpless people than orphans and widows. And I believe the same principle applies to the homeless.
We’ll never know how helpless they feel unless we listen. That is why you’ll here me say again and again that at Wichita Falls Faith Mission, Every Story Matters.
