Why do we treat the crazy people like their crazy?

Last night after a fun evening with my wife and our friend Scout, I walked Scout out to here car in our North Tacoma community. The the way out an old crazy homeless women saw an airplane going over our heads and pointed up shouting, "It's a spaceship, the spaceship is coming for us, do you see the spaceship, it is actually here!"At this point Scout thanked me for walking her to her car and she took off. Then the old women grabbed my arm and asked me nicely for a cigarettes. Unfortunately, I did not have one to give her so I apologized and wished her a good evening.

Today I have been thinking about that all day, and I asked myself, "Why do we treat the crazy people like their crazy?" It was as if she were an alien and not human at all. All I wanted to do was get as far away from this situation as possible. Not once did I think about sharing Christ's love with this woman by asking her if there was any other way I could help her. It has always been hard for me to work with the poor and homeless. Just less than a year ago I read a really good book that transformed my way of thinking about the poor and gave me a passion to someday work harder at serving those in poverty, those in need, those who are homeless. Yet my way out has always been that I am working in another ministry right now and I just don't have the time.

Today I face the truth that my ministry does not have to be a profession for me to do it and I am going to start praying about how I can use my time in which ever community God puts me in to reach out to those around me. So the next time you see somebody who is crazy, I want to encourage you not to treat them like they are crazy, but as if they are a brother or sister in Christ, and then share the love of Christ with them.

That is all.

Cheers!