Don't Laugh At Me
(Allen Shamblin/Steve Seskin)

I'm a little boy with glasses
The one they call the geek
A little girl who never smiles
'Cause I've got braces on my teeth
And I know how it feels
To cry myself to sleep

I'm that kid on every playground
Who's always chosen last
A single teenage mother
Tryin' to overcome my past
You don't have to be my friend
But is it too much to ask

Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me

I'm the cripple on the corner
You've passed me on the street
And I wouldn't be out here beggin'
If I had enough to eat
And don't think I don't notice
That our eyes never meet

I lost my wife and little boy when
Someone cross that yellow line
The day we laid them in the ground
Is the day I lost my mind
And right now I'm down to holdin'
This little cardboard sign...so

Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me

I'm fat, I'm thin, I'm short, I'm tall
I'm deaf, I'm blind, hey, aren't we all

Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me

Homelessness is something that affects all of us today. Imagining a person rummaging through the garbage for food, sleeping on park benches, covering themselves with newspapers to keep warm, are not pretty things. These pictures don't fit our image of a "perfect" country. They don't conjure up an idea of wealth, orderliness or granduer. They do, however bring to mind the current state of our wonderful nation.

"America the beautiful", "Home of the free and the brave", home of the right to choose, the right to speak, the right to vote... AND the right to live on the streets with no one to care and no where to turn. Imagine, a society where everything is free unless it makes someone else uncomfortable.

We close our eyes as we pass them knowing that when we are past, we don't have to turn around and acknowledge that they are even there.

Our country spends millions of dollars each year feeding and clothing the homeless children and families in other countries. On TV you see ads encouraging you to "adopt" a child. To send money once a month to help a poor child receive food, education and clothing. When was the last time you saw an ad asking you to help take care of a child in our own country? I can't ever remember seeing one. Instead, we duck our heads and keep walking, pretending we don't see, pretending that we are untouchable.

What would you feel if next week (month, year) you were the one being passed by? I would feel ashamed, humiliated, embarrased and worse than all those... alone. Alone in my society, my city, my state. Abandoned by my fellow citizens, my friends, my neighbors, my president.

If you can't find it in you to do anything else for these people, please won't you find it somewhere in your heart to say a prayer for them? God wants us to love one another. He didn't put stipulations on that love.

Father God, I pray that somewhere today, someone in need of the food, clothing and shelter that I so often take for granted, will be given a hot meal, clean clothes and a warm soft bed. Please enclose these people with your love, and even if they don't recognize You, be their guardian. You have said in your Word that when I give unto the least of my brothers, I give unto You. Help me to heed that scripture today and everyday.

In Jesus name, Amen.

 

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