Feed My Sheep

Portland, Oregon

3 June 2011

Mt. Hood

3 June 2011

John 21:17 NIV
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.

The homeless man I trailed behind on a main street in Portland, Oregon, dragged his tattered sleeping bag behind him. Gray and dingy with the stuffing falling out, it looked as downtrodden as he.

His face was speckled with salt and pepper stubble. He limped as he walked. He wore a dark ski cap on his head and an open flannel shirt over a t-shirt.

He stopped, turned, and demanded, "Give me a dollar, so I can get somethin' to eat."

John doesn't approve when I talk to people who live on the streets, but it was lunch time and crowds of people were enjoying the rare sunshine, so I wasn't afraid.

Besides, since I have adopted my attitude of expecting miracles this week, I thought I'd see how far this would pan out.

"No, I won't give you a dollar, but I'll buy you a meal instead." I looked him straight in his foggy eyes.

He turned from my gaze confused. He didn't expect this response. I glanced down and noticed thick grimy city dirt caked on his wrists and along his forearms. Obviously it had been awhile since he had bathed.

Fortunately, my sinuses have clogged up my sense of smell, or else he might have been too odoriferous to try a miracle on.

He considered my counter proposal and grumbled, "Okay."  He asked where I wanted to take him. I replied it was his choice; I wasn't from here.

He seemed even more frustrated by me.

We stood outside a sushi restaurant. "You want sushi?" he quizzed me. Before I could reply he cut me off. "I don't like sushi."

"Fine, then what about a sandwich? There's a deli over---" Before I could point to the deli across the street he turned to me and said, "I tell you what, why don't you buy me a meal another time?" Then he sprinted down the street in the opposite direction from where I was headed. I was one block away from a local dive that fixed hot meals.

My miracle? I don't know. I expected it, but it didn't seem to arrive.  All I tried to do was feed a man and not his addictions.

Jesus commanded, "Feed my sheep." I tried real hard today. I'll expect a miracle tomorrow and see how that works out.
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Lord, thank you for helping me be brave enough to try to help the homeless man. He is one of your lost sheep. I pray someone will be able to bring him and others like him back into the fold.