A few years ago, I wrote about an experience I had as I dressed up as a homeless man in an article called “Lessons Learned from My Experience Dressing as a Homeless Man“.
Today I read an interesting article that reminded me about my experience a few years ago. I think it is awesome that the Bishop was humble enough to do what he did to help his congregation.
Read the article “Mormon Bishop Disguises himself as a Homeless Man to Teach Congregation about Compassion“.
It reminds me once again that God doesn’t care about our worldly possessions or appearance, but that He loves us for who we are: His child.
During this time of Thanksgiving, I hope we can reflect on the many blessings we have and reach out to those who may not have as much, who may not appear to care about life or who have lost vision of who they are.
Grace for Grace 
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November 29, 2013 at 9:02 am
sethdoctor
This was a great story. I appreciate you sharing this. It is great to see that we just need be open and opportunities present themselves all the time for us to help others, but also being pro active is key in situations as well. Thanks
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November 29, 2013 at 6:55 pm
Cal
Interesting.
There a few homeless-type people in our church—not necessarily homeless, but jobless and look or act like they have major issues in their life. I sometimes wonder if I’m treating them as good as I would if they looked more normal. I think I do. I hope so.
Our pastor recently asked a bunch of church members at an evening meeting who they thought had grown in the Lord the most during the past year. There was a bit of silence, then someone suggested Robert. Then another person said Robert. The pastor smiled, apparently because it was the answer he expected. Robert is one of those homeless-types!
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December 1, 2013 at 1:11 pm
Doug
Cool story-I really love that Bishop for being so daring! I volunteered in a homeless shelter when I lived on Long Island. I discovered through that experience that I had many misconceptions about homeless people-so I do not judge those church people too harshly. However-we need to show the homeless the love of Jesus Christ and remember the words of Christ-“if you do unto the least of these you do it unto me.”
Great blog! .
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December 3, 2013 at 6:12 am
Cal
Doug, in a nutshell, what misconceptions did you have of the homeless?
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December 4, 2013 at 8:33 am
Doug Dwyer
I thought homeless people were either lazy or mentally ill. The first night I was in the shelter (the volunteers slept in the kitchen) I kept my hands around my neck because I was afraid that they might come into the kitchen and cup my throat-I am ashamed that I felt that way. What I discovered was that a large number of them (but not all!) were victims of misfortune. Life threw them some lemons and they found themselves without a home.
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December 7, 2013 at 8:08 am
Cal
I’ll keep that in mind.
Merry Christmas to all!
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December 5, 2013 at 5:37 am
Aaron
This bishop’s act raises all kinds of questions, many of which I’m not comfortable confronting. What would I have done? Would I have asked the man to vacate church premises? would I have invited him in? The ultimate question, of course, is what would Jesus have done? After all, his name is on the building.
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December 11, 2013 at 10:40 am
graceforgrace
Thank you all for your thoughts. I think that it is human nature to be put-off initially when we see people like that. We’ve all heard the stories of homeless people attacking people or just begging for drug money, etc.
One of the greatest scriptures I think, comes from the Book of Mormon (Mosiah 4:19)
For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
When we are tempted to judge, we need to remember that we are nothing without God. I hope that I will do this when the opportunities are put in front of me.
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