Our home is too good for a poor man

We have a friend, his name is Gary. Gary is a homeless man that lives under a bridge in our city. We made friends with him last year while we were studying for exams at Starbucks and we spotted him rummaging through the garbage can just outside in the pouring rain. We learned that he believes in God but has been very hurt by the church in the past, he has a family and a couple kids. But these were the cards he was dealt. We will often see him sitting on the median at a major intersection making his living on red lights. He always brings a smile to our faces. Sometimes we go out of our way just to get in that one lane that will give us 30 seconds to talk to Gary. The change in our ash tray belongs to him. We've had the joy of having chats with him ( longer than what the red light permits) and have had many opportunities to share more about our faith in Jesus, and he's decided that he would really like to come out to our school chapels. We're very excited for this day! A little while ago, someone burned down his 'home'. Matt and a friend ran into him and heard his story, so we did everything possible to help him out and get him 'back on his feet'. Gary doesn't have much.

Oddly, I think this way too.

Too many times I have found my self complaining about living in such a small apartment (even though we have one of the larger ones on campus), or wishing that i could open my cupboards to find an array of the top notch cooking and baking utensils. Too many times have I longed for pictures on my walls or new, color coated towels for our bathroom ( I've even thought of guest towels!). My most recent longing is for frying pans that don't wiggle on the stove burner and chairs that match my kitchen table. An obvious necessity. "Matt, I really wish we had____", "Matt, I think we really need____".

Just a few days ago ( Wednesday), I was cooking up some concoction in the kitchen and Matt announced that he was going to go try and find Gary and see if he wanted to come to Chapel that night. With much excitement that our friend might come to church with us that night I quickly decided to make a little extra supper in hopes that maybe he'd also come for diner. Then the strangest thing happened. While chopping the veggies, I became painfully ashamed of our home. Not because we had so little, but because we had SO much! No longer did I look at our naked walls and my unmatched towels and see how little I had, but I looked at our ceiling and realized I have a roof over my head and 4 walls to keep the wind out. I have a big comfy couch and a 32" TV. Our cupboards are full of food and I know we will be crawling onto a queen size, pillow top mattress every night. I was ashamed of how much we had and how badly I didn't want Gary to see how well we live.

Gary didn't make it for chapel, or diner. I put the left overs in our fridge.