I Don't Want Your Pretzels, Little Girl

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always had a huge heart for the homeless. Thank you, God. It would break my heart whenever I would visit a major city with my family like New York City or Philadelphia and I would see men, and women just laying there on the streets, dirty, forgotten, while the world continued on around them. I would daydream about one day owning my own property where the homeless can come and truly be loved (unlike how homeless shelters treat people in need so horribly today). I dreamt of a place where they could come and take showers, get haircuts, receive clean clothes, even have their own bedroom, restroom, have constant food, and hopefully receive Jesus, and be prayed over for any addictions, mental issues, and more (if they consent). Also providing them the option to receive assistance finding a job, because many homeless people actually have degrees despite their circumstances. For example, a man loses his wife and daughter in a car crash, he falls into severe depression, and is in complete anguish of the heart. This man has an impressive degree, a fantastic job, but he becomes an alcoholic, because of what happened to him. The alcohol addiction spirals into the desire to start using other harder drugs and his unfortunate habit causes him to lose his job, because he fails to manage his time correctly, and shows up to work high. He starts running out of money, spending it on his habits, and trying to find ways to cope with life while grieving. He then loses his home, his car, and is forced out onto the streets as a homeless man. Many people think that all homeless people are just drug addicts that have no life, but that is a severely ignorant and unkind point of view, because I have actually learned that a vast amount were normal people who unfortunately experienced severe trauma, destroyed their lives trying to find ways to cope, and now they desperately need help, support, and desperately need love. My goal, by the grace of God alone, would be to make sure they are successfully sent out back into the world healed, with jobs, their identities, faith in Jesus (if they consent to go that route), and a brand new beginning. 

I also know that many just need deliverance like the man in the book of Luke in 8:26-39, but I will spare you from that explanation, since the true reason for me making this blog entry is so that I can share a hilarious story from my childhood with you…

When I was around maybe thirteen years old, my family and I decided to go to a music festival in Philadelphia. At some point during the festival, while walking around the food stands and vendor tables, these people started handing out free bags of pretzels. Now, I didn't really want the pretzels they were giving out, but I made sure I got six bags anyway, because they were being so generous, and because on the way to the festival, during the walk through the city with my family, I had seen a man sitting on the streets, clothed in ratty clothing. So I said within myself (something like), "I may not want these pretzels, but I'm gonna make sure that the homeless man gets them, so that he can eat. Let me pray that he will still be there when the music festival is over, because he may need to eat." And so I prayed and held onto those bags for the entire festival.

After the festival was over, my family and I started heading back to the car. Since it was the city, parking was extremely hard to find, and we could only find a parking spot far away from the festival. Therefore, it was quite the walking distance, but guess who I saw again on the way back to the car?! I saw the man again! God had answered my prayer! He was still there after all that time! He was still there, so I began making my way to him and I had remembered reading what the Lord said: that we should never do alms to be seen by men, in order to receive glory and recognition from men, but that we should do things like this with a pure heart, as if our right hand doesn't know what our left hand is doing (Matthew 6:2-4).

I mustered up the courage and approached the man, making sure I got super close, so that he would hopefully know that he is loved. I cleared my heart of all recognition, kept my head low avoiding the gazes of people passing by, focused on God, I bent down, and placed all of the pretzels in front of the homeless man. Then, I quickly turned around to catch up with my family as fast as I could. 

I made it about fifteen or less steps away from him and suddenly I began hearing certain kinds of sounds. It sounded like items falling onto the ground from the sky or something like that. And so of course, I turn around curious, and I see that the homeless man DID NOT WANT THE PRETZELS EITHER 😂😂😂😂😂 HAHAH!!!!! The man had gotten himself up and started flinging the bags into the literal street 😂😅 hahahahah!!! I can laugh about it now that I'm older, but dude. Seriously! At the time I was so heartbroken and I wanted to just cry my eyes out LOL. I had held onto all those bags for such a long time and with great love for him in my heart. I thought I had failed Jesus so badly 😭😭 Hahahahahahaha!! Even though God had helped me do well, it wasn't received, and that’s okay. I never let it destroy my love for those who are truly in need of love. Hahaha even while typing this story to you I busted out laughing HAHAHA. 

Okay though, on a serious note, it is very good to love those who are in need and those who are hurting, because remember how Lord Jesus warned how he is going to separate the sheep from the goats in (Matthew 25:31-46):

(The grammar and punctuation is exactly as shown in the KJV.)

Matthew 25:31-46 “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

I don’t know about you, but I am trying to be one of the sheep. Sheesh! You know what I mean?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope my blog post entertained you. I'm hoping you'll drop by and visit my blog again to read other entries in the future. I have a bunch already waiting for you in my main blog list. God bless you! Jesus loves you!