While walking in downtown Washington, DC this Christmas Eve, we encountered a homeless woman laying under an overpass directly across from the DC office of CNN news.  Another gentleman on our mission team and I brought her a blanket, hot cocoa and a backpack of warm clothes, for which she was very grateful.  Stuck to the cement 'wall' of the overpass, proudly displayed, was a Christmas card she had received from someone somewhere.  I would love to have heard the story connected with that card.  The irony, of course, is that she was asleep directly across the street from the entrance to the CNN offices.  Did the reporters know her name?  Did they even know she was there? 

It's no secret that CNN is not an unbiased network.  They advocate for more money to help the poor, yet here was a real flesh and blood poor person ten steps from one of their biggest offices in the country.  In fairness, she could have just as easily been sleeping outside of a FOX network office.  The fact is,  neither the share-the-wealth left nor the trickle-down right have the solution to the homelessness problem.  The problem is a spiritual one.

Now, I in no way am implying that people sleeping under bridges and on park benches are all there as consequence of their sins.  If being a sinner resulted in homelessness, we'd all be on the street.  Homelessness is a spiritual issue because people are spiritual beings.  Soulless political agendas are not enough, period. 

Now, we didn't have enough time to connect with the street people on the spiritual level they need, but we pray that through our presence - no one else, liberal or conservative was with these people on Christmas Eve - it will at least get some of the folks thinking about a God who is crazy in love with them.  But it will take local believers everywhere reaching out to the homeless in their community to bring the spiritual revolution that will change these desperate, dreamless, dangerous lives into what God has planned for them from the beginning of time.  Idealistic, perhaps; but since when is idealism a bad thing.  Besides, I have a friend and neighbor whose life testifies to the reality of this hope.  Born on a Micmac reservation in Canada, Mike spent years as a homeless drug addict in Boston.  Now he is sober, a member of our church's worship team, and always up to some pranks with our 12 year old daughter when they get together at church.  He'll be the first to say that it was believers investing in his life on a spiritual level that brought about his much needed revolution.

Flashback now to another world 600 miles north and another lifetime, although the calendar tells me it was only a few weeks prior.  While leading prayer time with my middle school students in our Christian school in suburban Portland, Maine, an 8th grader named Andrei raised his hand.  Apparently he has a friend at his Greek Orthodox parish, and this friend's family is going through financial struggles.  I don't know the details, and it's certainly possible that Andrei doesn't either, but it was the first prayer request he's ever shared that was about someone other than himself.  He's sincerely concerned for his friend.

Then the class suggested we do something for this family.  We tried selling Christmas cards, ,but only raised $15.  A week later, when the class learned we had $885 for our class ministry trip this spring, Cutter spoke up and said, "Why don't we give them the $85.  We'll still have more than we did last year at this time, and we'll be able to give Andrei's friends $100."  I stressed to the class that this was their money, and anyone had the right to speak up and say we should save it for our upcoming plans.  The more I encouraged them to consider the cost, the more momentum the idea of giving it away increased.  I was never so proud of these kids.

After checking with adults connected with their church, we got a $100 gift card to a grocery store chain, wrote a Christmas card and delivered it to the church to be passed on to Andrei's friends.  I know that this will help, but I also know that $100 is a small amount when a family is dealing with bills, especially at Christmas time.  The thing that really provides the hope in this story is the word Andrei used in his original pray request.  He has a friend. At 14, Andrei understands this family is more than a political agenda.  They are more than a charity case deserving nothing better than our pity.  They are real people - spiritual beings - who we are to befriend, love and respect simply because they are human.  When believers of all ages and churches see the poor - homeless or not - this way, the revolution starts, and lives change.

 Just ask Mike.