A Stone’s Throw Away

Again, we made our way down to Tent City in downtown San Diego.

We spent some time walking around, touching base with a few of the people who are staying there. I can’t say that we’ve established relationships yet, but we are beginning to make connections. And relationships have to start somewhere.

This is actually the smaller of the tent communities. Once again, I found it pretty squared away. People were grateful for what we brought, but even more than that, they were engaging. They talked with us. They welcomed us into their space.

Before I left, I snapped a photograph. I was trying to capture Tent City in the foreground and, directly behind it, the high-rise buildings of downtown San Diego. The contrast is hard to ignore.

I believe people have the right to enjoy the life they have worked for. I don’t have a problem with people living according to their means, enjoying their success, or choosing how they spend their money.

But standing there, I couldn’t help noticing the tremendous difference between the world I was standing in and the world that was literally a stone’s throw away.

In one direction, people are living high above the city in beautiful buildings.

In the other, people are trying to figure out how to make it through another night in a tent. Two completely different realities sharing almost the exact same piece of sky.

I’m a realist. I understand that I’m not going to solve homelessness. Jesus Himself said that the poor would always be among us. I understand that there will probably always be tremendous differences between what some people have and what others don’t—at least in my lifetime.

But being realistic doesn’t give me permission to become indifferent. I believe there is a day coming when Jesus will make all things right. I have this hope that one day we will all sit around the same table, and so much of what separates us now won’t matter anymore. There won’t be a Tent City on one side and high-rises on the other. There won’t be the housed and the unhoused, the successful and the struggling, the people who have plenty and the people wondering where tomorrow’s meal will come from.

Until then, I don’t have to fix the whole city.I don’t have to solve the entire problem. I just have to keep seeing the person standing in front of me.

I just have to learn their name. Try to hear a little of their story.

Definitely Treat them with dignity.

And than show up again. And maybe, one relationship at a time, make their world a little different.

Until the day when Jesus makes all things new.