(Originally posted 05/18/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 12/28/17.)
To get from Point A to Point B, you must move.
At this moment, as I write this, I am living in a pit.
I am homeless.
I face a choice: do I want to get out, or stay here?
I could choose to stay here, and continue to just take whatever the world chooses to throw at me; some folk toss in blessings, some toss in trash. There is the question of what to do with the trash I myself create. And what to do with my #1s and #2s.
If I choose to get out — that means work. I must first get on my feet.https://thehomelessblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/get-on-your-feet.mp3
I happen to be lucky enough to know how I got here. I know enough not to continue the behavior patterns that got me here. But in the end, that’s not all that important. There are enough folk who never got into a pit, but rather have lived there all their lives; that’s where they were born.
There’s only one way out.
Are you living in a pit as well?
If so, do you want to get out? to climb out?
That means work.
You may have to do things differently than your parents did.
You may need to change your name.
You will have to cut loose from the haters, the leeches, the back-stabbers — anyone who’s going to hold you back. At times you may feel very much alone, though you are destined to meet new associates who — if you accept them — will support your goals.
You may need to change your ways. Some folk practice behavior patterns that generate — that create — poverty for themselves and for everyone around them. Other folk practice other behavior patterns that create prosperity for themselves and for everyone around them. You may have to “lose” some ways and learn others. I will do everything I can to help you with this.
You have everything you need already.
They say, “I felt sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.” I reject that. Should the man who has no feet feel sad? How long? It’s OK to feel sad once in a while, for a few hours; a “pity party” can release stress and anxiety. But to feel sad all day long, or day after day, gets me nowhere.
I’ve got to get on my feet sometime.
They also say, “A man can’t pull himself up by his bootstraps, if he has no boots.” I reject that also. You’ve got boots — even if you don’t have feet.
In the end, you’ve got boots if you’re alive.
Your life itself is all you need, to begin climbing out, to get on your feet. Everything else you may need, will come along the way.
My confidence in saying so, comes from my belief in God.
(I’m intrigued by a mistake I made on Thursday while working on this text. I was trying to figure out how to explain here my belief in God. I meant to think, “I believe in God.” Instead, I thought, “I believe in you.”
(Believe in God? Believe in you? Maybe there’s no difference.)
Jesus spoke to everyone as if God were their father. If this is a fact — that you are a child of God — then your beliefs about God do not matter. You are a child of God regardless of what you believe.
Jesus went beyond that. He told people, “You are the light of the world.” Have no doubt that those to whom he said this included people just like you.
Imagine that. You — the light of the world. Can you believe it?
Then why stay in a pit?
If you choose to do the work, God will empower you to do everything you need to do.
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I’m no better than you. I presume no authority. I am, instead, a fellow-traveler. All the things I ask you to do, are things I must also do myself. All the things I ask you to learn, are things I must also learn, myself.
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