Faith of our fathers and our Homeless

This is the last entry I will be making for Fancy Simple for a while. This week they have been talking about faith and today the faith question came almost full circle. I talked in the past that Faith without works is dead. It does you no good in my mind to have faith in anything unless it inspires you to action. Have faith in a higher power hopefully gets you to show worship of that higher power by doing things that higher power would have you do. If you have Faith that this next year the Chicago Cubs will finally make it to the World Series (and Win for once), you might show your faith to buy tickets and go to one of their pathetic games (that they will probably lose).

Faith requires action.

Fancy Simple suggests that I tell you about how my faith inspires me. I'd like to share three instances.

Faith in my God has resulted in me feeling the importance of bearing one another's burdens. This Sunday is Veteran's day. We have three major generations of war in our lives. We have our Grandparent's war (WWII), our Father's war (Viet Nam) and we have our generation's war (Invading Iraq to have a piece of the oil market). We have 3 sets of soldiers that sometimes just want to talk. Right now I am doing part-time construction at the home of a 90 year-old woman who loves for me to eat lunch with her ("Just like my Charlie used to when we built this house..."). And as I sit there and eat with her she tells me stories. Stories about growing up. Stories about living with "Japs" and "Negroes." Stories about her husband and his war the pacific theatre. And I listen to everyone of those stories. Of course there is work to be done (termites to find, wood to replace, sheetrock to install), but she wants to talk. I think that is important to do. Listen to those who have gone before.

For my second item I want to talk about doing what's right even when you realize you're probably getting screwed. I am not a change guy. I used to be. My brother's best friend Ryan can tell you stories of when I was a young pup, Ryan used to throw dimes and nickels in the street just so they could watch me chase after them. But not any more - change is just something that weighs me down and slows me down. So when I go to the store and they give me change back, I throw it into my ash tray. Then when I come across many of the homeless people in Antioch I give them some of my change. I have heard people say that I am just throwing my money away. In stead of begging for money - these people could go out and get good jobs. I don't care. I have faith that they will use the money for their good. "Their Good" is a very loose term in my head. If buying a gram and getting high is what they think is good for them, then I don't care. I just know that to not share something that I'm not going to do anything with isn't good for me.

The last piece of faith in action comes from a comment my sister made. This is the holiday season and there are people in need of food. She is planning on donating to the food back. I whole heartily endorse this. Growing up in Fremont, my mother used to go to the store and get canned goods for our food storage. When the Second Harvest people would come to our door I would slip into our food storage and find them all of the Homeless Corn we have. What is Homeless Corn, you ask? It's creamy corn. Every time I've worked at a homeless shelter, they have had creamy corn for their occupants. I'm not sure if it's be cause homeless people love creamy corn or if, like me, eating homeless corn inspires them to not be homeless, but I do know that my mother was constantly seeing her homeless corn go to those that needed it.
Why donate to the homeless? Call it karma or call it faith, but I believe that it is creating a security net. You never know when tragedy will hit your life. One day you may be a rich person in the hills of Malibu and the next you are eating homeless corn at Qualcom Stadium. But by giving now you are having faith that if you ever need it, someone will give to you when you are in need. Even if all they are giving is Homeless Corn.