The Bothersome Thing

I am a small town guy.  Big cities seem like roaring beasts.  A city is a place empty of silence and filled with the constant roar of expressway traffic.  Whenever some green space gets too green, bulldozers and builders congregate to cover more dirt with concrete so another towering building can be sent skyward.  Night time lights hide stars and moon, people live at elbow length without knowing one another, and walls become canvases for graffiti artist.  The modern urban environment simply overwhelms the senses of this man whose heart belongs to the small town.    

What makes me most uncomfortable about the city is something which is never seen in the small town I call home.  In the small town which has my post office box there is no homeless community.  There are no people with cardboard signs at the only intersection of my town.  There are no tent communities filled with folks pushing shopping carts.  It always jolts something deep inside of me when I come to the end of a busy city street and find my field of vision filled with tents and makeshift shelters which surely cannot provide protection from the rain.  Any sense of personal comfort is shattered in a moment.  One part of me says I should do something.  Another part says there is nothing I can do.  I suppose I could see and not see, but once seen is always seen.  

What is also true is that once we walk with Jesus and listen long enough to what He is saying about caring for the poor among us, we cannot live without knowing that we have heard what we do not want to hear.  When confronted with what was seen as an impossible task of feeding five thousand hungry people, the disciples wondered what to do and Jesus said, "....you give them something to eat..."  (Matthew 14:16). What is most bothersome about the whole business is that He is still saying the same thing to us.