Serious thoughts

Hello,

Leroy’s ability to see grey areas is sometimes good for him to see the overall picture. Me, I am more of the black and white ilk so I am a bit flummoxed by some things.

At our neighborhood meeting a man talked about the fact that there are homeless people who come to the meals at noon. These people have a fairly regular circuit they make around the city. After having worked in the Moorhead, MN library next to the homeless shelter, I certainly saw the same people over and over at about the same times of day. The person talking at the meeting shared that many of them are ex cons (Is that a good term?) because they cannot get housing. They also cannot find jobs so they cannot move on with their lives. Many of them have alcoholic or drugs dependency issues. Some of them are mentally ill or some combination of the above.

We also learned that the gun violence in our city is being perpetrated by an entirely different set of people.

What is our prison system, I suspect the largest and “best” in the world, doing for us and them? Is it for rehabilitation purposes? If so it is not doing a good job when they cannot be accepted back into society. It seems to condemn one to a life of “disease”. Is it for our safety? Perhaps it is doing a better job there at least for as long as someone is not among us. Many prisoners are not violent towards our person, but perhaps towards our material goods. Should they be in prison in the first place? It is not an easy thing to find an answer to all of this.

I have been reading a book called “Carry On, Warrior” by Glennon Doyle Melton. It raises the point that all people are loved by God. Now the question for me is how do I show love to all, even people I might be afraid of? How do I lessen that fear? Or how do I show love to people I do not like?

What was Jesus thinking when he laid this love stuff on us?

Paula