Thinking in Vancouver...

Well, this is decidedly unrelated to motorcycle adventures, but Stefanie felt it was worth blogging about.

We were in downtown Vancouver yesterday to go and see the HSBC Celebration of Light. We didn't actually see the show on account of dumping rain, so what makes this event post-worthy was the journey back home.

Right at this marked location:


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...in the pouring rain, we saw a homeless man curled up on a bench. He was trying to get cover from the rain, but the only thing available to him was a down sleeping bag. Anyone with more than about 10 minutes of camping experience knows that a sleeping bag like that gives him very little protection.

Although the scene was heart-wrenching, it wasn't that which made me as angry as I was. No, I was ticked at the fact that just across the water, up on a hill, there were people sitting in multi-million dollar homes. Sometimes there are several tens of thousands of dollars worth of automobiles sitting in the driveways of those homes. I am not against having things, not in the least. I am totally shocked at how a society like our own can have such drastic separation of wealth mere kilometers apart. You don't need to go to other countries to see this. It is in your own back yard.

I am mad because we don't care. If we did, people wouldn't have to take cover under sleeping bags just to try and stay dry. You wouldn't see men in wheel chairs, completely unable to support themselves, bowing their heads against the cold in those winter nights.

I don't buy into the notion that these people made choices that landed them where they are. Sure, some of them probably did and continue to do so. However, if we are to love them as Christ did, we are to not assume the worst of them. We are to help in any way we can. We aren't to make excuses for our apathy, nor are we to add provisos to John 15:12..."My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." There is nothing else there...the only thing we can do with this verse is understand how heavy it is, not how we can try and weasel our way out of it.

How did Christ love us? Well, for most of us, that is obvious. He was crucified. I'll tell you right now, I fall short of this command, so terribly short. If I am not willing to be crucified for the sake of the most wicked, unloving, unclean and hate-filled person on this planet, I have not fulfilled that commandment. How pathetic am I then, if I cannot show even the slightest sign of compassion as I walk past the poor? What does that say about me as a person when I just carry on my life as if I have higher priorities?

I could go on, and I'm sure you can add to it. Basic message: love the poor. I don't care how you do it, nor do I care when. Love them, because that is loving Christ. If you hate them and say you love God, you are a liar, just like me.