Tag Archives: Panhandling

The offering plate, part 1

October 5, 2023Dependency, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Jacob's Ladder, Motivations, Poverty, The Way of Peace, Thursday postsBootstraps, Dreams, Infantilism, Karma, Panhandling, Takers v. Makers, VisionWilliam Tell

One lives in a world substantially of one’s own creation.

The offering plate came around, and I got a shock. I can remember when I dreamed of putting $60 in there each week, as the woman does who normally sits in front of me. No such dream is available to me now; I am unable to envision myself ever putting anything in there.

My circumstances have rendered me infantile; a complete “taker.” One of those who seeks to receive “blessings” rather than seeking to be a blessing, a “maker.”

What can I give as an offering?

The offertory hymn was, “We are an offering.”

We lift our voices, we lift our hands
We lift our lives up to You
We are an offering
Lord use our voices, Lord use our hands
Lord use our lives, they are Yours
We are an offering

All that we have, all the we are
All that we hope to be
We give to You, we give to You

We lift our voices, we lift our hands
We lift our lives up to You
We are an offering, we are an offering[*]

I myself can be my offering.

More about that next week.

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Previous posts mentioning the offering plate:
I’m getting interviews!
What a homeless man dreams of

Previous posts mentioning the credibility of dreams:
Hope and vision

Originally posted 2016-05-14.

A place to begin

September 24, 2020Bible, Get on your feet, Homelessness, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, Thursday postsAcceptance, Dan Rodricks, Dual diagnosis, Jesus, John 9:1-3, Panhandling, Presence, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

John 9:1-3:

¹As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

The disciples want to place blame. Their posture can be referred to as fault-finding, judgment and condemnation. Jesus calls attention to the opportunity to heal, to do good, to make a beginning.

Continue reading A place to begin →

35,000 Walruses Are All Crowded Together In One Spot — And It Signals Something Ominous

March 12, 2020National news, Squalor, Thursday posts, World NewsAstrology, DEA, Domestic violence, Facebook, Global warming, Marriage, Monthly, Panhandling, Sondra Prince, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

Bookmarks:
The walruses’ plight • Panhandler drives a Fiat • Forged DEA Facebook page • Exceptional horoscopes update 2014-10-20 • Battered women, murdered childen

Continue reading 35,000 Walruses Are All Crowded Together In One Spot — And It Signals Something Ominous →

Motivation and necessity

January 11, 2020Homelessness, MotivationsChoosing feelings, Count the cost, Desire, Dual diagnosis, Neediness, Panhandling, Prayer, Ron, Stewardship, Takers v. MakersWilliam Tell

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

I visited the ATM this afternoon to withdraw cash for this next week’s rent. Certain necessities arose at once, and at once drastic changes occurred in my motivations, hopes and dreams.

Continue reading Motivation and necessity →

Angry Mike

April 20, 2019Homelessness, OUR BEST POSTSAngry Mike, Depression, Mental illness, PanhandlingWilliam Tell

Angry Mike has been coming to the mission for at least five years. He supports himself by panhandling. He’s OK, rational, but he’s got some kind of mental illness and knows it. He’s doing better at the moment, but in the past he was angry

all
the
time.

Continue reading Angry Mike →

Free speech issues, etc.

January 24, 2019National media, National news, The Way of Peace, The William Tell Show, Thursday posts, World NewsCrime, Dan Rodricks, Free speech, Free Speech Handbook, Hate speech, McDonald's #2763, Panhandling, Presence, Rite AidWilliam Tell

Bookmarks:
Some news sites cracking down on over-the-top comments • Obama suggests sense of powerlessness in confronting the world’s evils • Scary people downtown • An angry young man, and divine intervention •

Continue reading Free speech issues, etc. →

Attack of the needy people

September 20, 2018Clippings, Thursday posts, World NewsArrogance, Carolyn Hax, Keep the focus on you, Mind your own business, Need, Neediness, Panhandling, Presence, Self careWilliam Tell

This is an unscheduled post.

The letter copied below from Carolyn Hax’s column for today just blew me away, as pertinent to current posts on the topic of presence. A lifestyle of presence is very much out of synch with contemporary American culture, and is seen by those who don’t understand it as selfish and irresponsible. The letter I’m quoting here epitomizes what’s likely to happen when you “keep the focus on you” and “mind your own business” — and deal with others who have no intention of doing either one.
Continue reading Attack of the needy people →