Don't stop with just praying, hear them and help them

Recently I was at an event with Christians taking care of homeless people. They were doing what Christ told them they should do. They did this without thinking someone would pay them back or do anything for them in return because they did it out of compassion.

There was a young father there. He came over to a group, telling them he didn't know what to do and was clearly very upset. He told how he had lost his job and had a sick infant at home with the threat of his electricity being shut off. A pastor came over to the group and asked him if he was a Christian. The young father said he was but had not been active as a Christian. The pastor then went into full battle mode to get him to accept Christ into his life, and after he did, the pastor walked away, leaving me stunned and the young father crushed. The pastor was not interested in hearing about his problems but above that, he did not offer a prayer for this young father's need or prayers for his sick child.

I offered a prayer for the father and the child which let this man know someone was at least listening to him.

The rest of the night, the homeless were fed, provided with personal care items and given some clothing along with prayers. These are very caring people giving up their time and their hearts to help others. The pastor had good intentions and maybe he believed that if this father accepted Christ back into his life, everything would be taken care of by Christ, but he lost the opportunity to show what Christ was all about. Christ didn't give someone a cloak when they needed food. He took care of the need as it was to show God's love. He taught those who followed Him to do the same.

When we pray to God, how do you expect God to answer your prayers? Do you think He just snaps His fingers and it's done? He answers our prayers by asking other people to fill them in many cases. Sometimes there are divine interventions where something just happens like healing without any medical reason for it but more often He is trying to get people with the ability to answer the prayers of someone to answer them.

We have veterans all across this country needing help and they need it from members of the clergy. From all denominations and all walks, they need them there to show God's love by listening to them but first they can only help them if they know what the problem is. How can a man or woman raised in faith in normal life never touched by trauma understand what combat does? How can they understand the aftermath if they do not understand the event itself? Our veterans need the help of the churches to heal but very few churches are getting involved. Talk to a National Guards soldier and you'll know how deep their pain is.

They need to know just as Christ came and walked with the poor and needy, what their lives are like in the first place before they can even hope to fulfill the need acting as Christ did, taking care of the need as they are in need and then, only then, really being able to draw people close to Christ and really feel Him as a part of their lives. Otherwise, they are not doing the job they said they would do.

I don't know if the pastor at the event knew what it was like to be under so much stress or not, but he needed to listen just as much as he needed to talk about Christ.