real hope for lieutenant james

last week terry and i met james in the parking lot of the sunday breakfast mission in wilmington. james was pretty certain he had met us before at the train station. or was it rodney square? or sunday breakfast mission? yes, according to james it was any and all of these places. read terry's first account here and second one here. james has fallen on some difficult times. times that i can't comprehend. he's a marine like the way that i'm tall and lanky- it's who he is. no getting around it. he returned in 2006 from afghanistan. he's been homeless since. welcome home. he has testicular cancer. he has no family in the area. his father passed away last christmas season and this is the first one he's had without him. he said the hardest part about being homeless is having to ask people for help. the best part? no longer taking friendships and shelter for granted. there's real hope for lieutenant james and that excites terry and i. it's great taking homeless people out to lunch. really great. we meet the most intriguing characters in the world. the people we've met are friendly despite their circumstances, wise because of their circumstances, generous while having so little, and most are hopeful in the face of a situation that should breed cynicism. they look like jesus. while our lunches are great, sometimes the complexity of their situation is a little overwhelming. not overwhelming in the sense that i stress out about it. or that i'm unable to enjoy the meals. overwhelming in the sense that it's difficult to know how to really help someone stuck in the cycle of poverty. james just inherited a large sum of money and a home from his deceased father. he needed a few bucks to pay the fee for a birth certificate so that he could get an id card so that he could...long story short- get the money and the home. we're rooting for him. it'd be great to actually help someone overcome such a devastating situation. he has every intention of paying us back our $21 that we've "lent" him. i told him we didn't care about the money, we just wanted to make sure we were helping him the best way we could. he took offense. "i'm a marine! i'm going to pay you back." ok. today was a good conversation because we got to ask him all those philosophical questions that you want to ask homeless people- what's keeping you from getting off of the streets? is there anything you like about being homeless? do you have any plans for the next few months? do you know sonny (affectionately known as "the blues man")? james has some pretty bizarre tales. for instance, he volunteers for joe biden and helps cops with undercover drug busts. a true renaissance man. terry and i both struggle with skepticism. maybe it's healthy. i'm not sure. but i know that perfect love always trusts. our culture is such that trust has to be earned; not granted unconditionally.