Homelessness

I have been thinking a lot about a Christian's responsibility to the homeless. It seems like anytime someone suggests that a group find some way to help the community someone always suggests feeding the homeless. That's OK with me but what about the homeless dude you drive by on the freeway exit. Should Christians always give the homeless food? That could get kinda expensive. And what if they aren't really homeless? Or what if you give them money and they use it on drugs? Will God count that as you buying drugs because you supplied the cash?
I read a book awhile back called Under the Overpass, where these two Christian dudes lived as homeless guys for like 6 months as kind of an experiment. Basically they were ignored by almost every person that walked by. After reading the book I decided what was most important in regards to the homeless was to acknowledge them. I have spent a good deal of time talking to different homeless people, even played some music with some homeless guys. What really struck me was that they were so stoked just to be talking to someone. They enjoyed my company. Which is cool because we usually have nothing in common. Jesus spent time with people like that. He never looked the other way when he passed by someone who was sick or hurting. Or someone who was an outcast for that matter. When you read the stories of Jesus you notice he spends more time with the socially unacceptable people than he did with anyone else. What Jesus wants from us is to love people. Love, love, love, all you need is love (by the way go listen to the Beatles, Jesus really likes them, I'm sure).

P.S. This is not to say that we shouldn't do more than just hang out with homeless guys or gals. We also have a call to feed the hungry. And it isn't to say we should only hang out with homeless people, thats just not practical.