By April Terry

On the drive home Friday night, I was listening to Joe Wright, English filmmaker, of “The Soloist” as he was being interviewed on NPR regarding his experience with the homeless during the filming of his movie. It is widely known that he used real homeless persons as extras in the movie. What struck me about the interview was when he commented about the way that the homeless take care of each other. He said that he learned a lot of things while he spent time with them and he described the community of homeless as a close-knit community that takes care of one another. Significantly, he remarked that it was nothing like that in Beverly Hills.

What is it about the increasing availability to funds and money that somehow sets us apart from our community? I think that our sense of community is a direct result of our need for relationship. Perhaps we mistakenly think that if we have enough food, money, access to material wealth, and responsibility, we no longer need each other in the big scheme of things. Perhaps we have mistaken independence for isolation. Perhaps we have a tendency to throw money at the issues, rather than our time.

There seems to be a connection between needing others and needing God as well. Jesus did say, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Immediately after He said that folks were shocked by His statement and exclaimed that it was impossible, but Jesus’ response was that “with God, all things are possible for those who believe.” Perhaps if we perceive the Kingdom of heaven as a state of love, rather than a specific place, it is easier for us to think about our connection to God and to others. Over and over, Jesus seemed to contrast wealth from spirituality.

Those whose lives depend on their day-to-day scavenging have something that we can’t fully understand and perhaps it has something to do with living completely in the present. Often, they have no past and no future, only today, only now, and in that now are those who surround them, protect them, and love them. That’s real community. When you’re living day-to-day, meal-to-meal, moment-to-moment, you know that you have to find your courage, friendship, and your faith in the now.

I think Jesus was right that “with God all things are possible.” In our own state of wealth, we can rise above the hindrance that having money brings and learn to access community without fear. How do we do that? We learn to live in the now and we look for those who are also living in now. We learn to love like we are homeless. We stop planning and we start living and being.