I spent the night last night at the men's homeless shelter here in Corvallis. Had a good time chatting with the guys and overall the night was pretty uneventful. Probably 30 plus guys at the shelter on a pretty regular basis. I hate to say it, but last night felt like a bit of a token volunteer effort. I get to go back to my comfortable warm house, and probably won't get time to stay at the shelter again for weeks or maybe even til next winter.

Prior to last night, I rarely paused to think about the homeless or poor people in our community, subconsciously marginalizing them and their situation, judging homelessness as simply a product of bad decisions. Sure, I care and give to causes and organizations in town, but how often do we actually connect with other people's plight and consider them as we consider ourselves? After getting a chance to hang out with them a bit, I realized the real lack of distance between their life and mine. Most of us are only a few bad decisions, an illness, or a job loss away from many of these guys' reality.

A song this morning stirred me, so I googled the lyrics for you to read. It's called Give me Your Eyes, by Brandon Heath. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in an ergonomic chair with clean clothes, a breve at my right, my blackberry at my left, food in my stomach and a mortgage that is paid on time. At the very least, let's be grateful for what we have today, and have open eyes to others that are in a tough spot. Here's the song.

Look down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touch down on the cold black top
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what's underneath
There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work,
He's buying time

I’ve been here a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just move and pass me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
I need a second glance
Give me a second chance
To see the way you’ve seen the people all along