HOMELESS IN HAWAII

Paul Harvey asked the question of how so many out of state homeless people were able to get to Hawaii.  Joel John Roberts, who writes  a homeless blog for the city of Los Angeles, California, suggests that local communities are paying the plane tickets for the homeless to go to Hawaii.  The rationale is that it is harder for the homeless to make their way back to the mainland.  At least one state representative is pleading with the state of Hawaii to pay $100,000 to return these homeless people back to their original communities.  Rida Cabanilla, who is Hawaii’s chairwoman of the Housing Committee, points to a University of Hawaii study that reveals nearly 1,000 people or 19 percent of the homeless population of Hawaii have been there less than a year.  Nearly half the homeless population did not live in Hawaii ten years ago.
 
The Hawaii homeless are not a “one size fits all” community.  A good number of these folks were sold on the imagery of Hawaii as a place to sit and sip drinks on the beach.  Reality has been harsh for these folks.  Some had no idea it would be so expensive and could not afford to elevated prices of the island state.  Some are content to visit the soup kitchens and live in a tent.  Some mention various hardships that have left them with no choice but to remain.  But, Cabanilla and others would love for all of them to go back home.
 
A couple of things stand out to me.  First, how many people have pursued “paradise” only to find out that reality was much different from what they dreamed it would be?  Others are content to live in squalor and cling to “paradise” because they think it does not get any better.  People are deceived by sin, even calling good “evil” and evil “good” (cf. Isa. 5:20).  Second, there are a good many people out there who it seems nobody wants.  Nobody wants to pay them attention or wants to have to deal with them.  Yet, God loves them and paid the highest price to redeem them, too.  What should our attitude as Christians be toward them?  Finally, there is a sense in which Christians are not at home in this world.  On occasion, we may feel as though we are undesirable to the worldly mind and the present culture.  It is good for us to remember that we are pilgrims and strangers on this earth (cf. 1 Pet. 2:11).  We will not be at home until we reach that “long home,” that “home of the soul.”  One thing is for sure.  Nobody should feel “homeless” in God’s family.  Paul calls the church “the household of God” (1 Tim. 3:15).  There is a place for everybody in this spiritual home on earth.  May we each take our place there.
Neal Pollard

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