Over the past nine months I have been working with street-dependent youth. What does this mean? I thought this meant I was learning how to help a population in need, how to rally the community into action, and how to make a mark on social injustice. However, I am learning something much greater. I am learning that the face behind the sign on the corner is an individual with a story. An individual with pain, needs, and desires. Who am I to judge that person without knowing their story?
The past months I have heard stories of trauma and survival. Stories I had read about in books, but now can match with a face. Many of these are victims of horrible crimes and the sad part is they often don't realize it.
Today was different. Today I heard the story, not of a victim, but of a survivor!
I cannot think of his story without tears in my eyes and the realization that I have had a blessed life. My heart breaks for this 21-year-old brilliant individual with only a 3rd grade education. At 8-years-old his father made him kill his loved dog with his bear hands and then sold him to a Russian mob for a months worth of meth. He was then placed in a cage to fight other children for entertainment. He had to do unimaginable things simply to survive. At night he was chained in a basement until one day he took a marble statue and crushed the chains around his wrists in order to escape. He tells me this as he shows me his bent and scarred hands. He story goes on to tell of selling drugs for a place to sleep, being kicked out by his mother for simply looking like his dad, and then his dad driving him into the middle of the desert only to leave him to die.
I cannot believe the many stories this one individual told me through the tears. How can one life suffer so much? He tells me he is unlovable and everyone that should have been there for him has never cared. He tells me he forgives them because the hate will only "rot me from the inside out." With a smile on his tear streaked face he tells me he knows what his purpose is. To help people like him. To help them avoid the pain, stay off the drugs, and not sever relationships with the ones they love.
I am unable to give this story justice and to express the emotion that it deserves. This one individual has opened awareness on so many different levels for me today. Don't forget to say I love you today, don't forget to thank the Lord for all He has provided and especially the lack of pain! I urge you to think twice next time you see an individual asking for food on the side of the road. Remember, each of us has a story and most of all, each of us are children of God!
Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. Proverbs 21:13
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