With all the problems and challenges that clients of Rescue Mission’s both here in Pierce County and around the country are facing, why do we maintain focus on development of the spirit and the mind as the priority in our programs? With all the people living on the streets, hungry, struggling with raising families out of a van and on the move, shouldn’t housing be the top priority?
In a simple answer, NO.
That’s not to say that we ignore the practical challenges that people are facing, quite the opposite. Shelter, transitional housing, feeding programs and other practical services are fundamental to our work getting people off the streets and back into productive lives.
Fundamental, but not the ultimate priority.
Here’s the important lesson: Contentment and strength come from the inside. Many people pursue products, money, and a better house looking for happiness and contentment. Some find out that those things alone won’t bring happiness. That is why we focus on HOPE. Hope is a spiritual component. Happiness is an inside job.
This truth isn’t true for productive Americans, but not false for the poor. No, stuff won’t bring happiness to the homeless either. Only by addressing the needs of the spirit and mind can we help them get contentment and build a happy, healthy life and family.
Let’s keep building housing and shelter for those without a place to lay their heads, and do so with a passion so that no man/woman/child has to sleep on the streets. Let us continue to feed those who are hungry and hurting because they have physical lack in their lives.
But as we do those things, let us not think that these things alone will bring happiness. Body, Mind and SPIRIT.
David Curry
