Last week I watched a you tube video of Rahat (from Magic of Rahat) giving $1000 to a homeless man by pretending he won the lottery. Homeless lotto winner brought everyone to tears last week when he said “I would like to share it” after he couldn’t believe he just “won” $1000. Over the weekend, the internet has decided to reward him for restoring faith in humanity and to date $35,150 have been raised for Eric, the homeless man who just wanted to share his earnings with his benefactor. “Pay it forward” the internet is saying. One donor commented “Eric – Pay it forward. I lost my job. But you deserve this more.” Another said “Let’s hope together we can change your life. Your integrity touched me.”
The idea is clear. Eric is not just homeless. He is deserving.
He is not the only one. Homeless jesuses live amongst us. In fact, I’m convinced that people who have less and struggle more are more willing to give to others. They know what it’s like.
In Feb 2014, the news broke out about a recovering alcoholic, homeless hungarian man who won £1.7m. ‘I have become rich but I have not become a different person,’ he said. A large portion of the cash was to be used to set up a foundation for addicts and women abused by their husbands. He had already proven his generosity as the win (which happened in September 2013) remained a secret until he made a sizeable donation to a hostel for the homeless in February 2014. And get this, the story was so inspiring that human rights activists organised a wave of protests worldwide against a new Hungarian law that bans sleeping rough, in a country that has 30,000 homeless people. Demonstrations were held in front of Hungarian embassies and consulates in London, Paris, New York, Vienna, Lisbon, Dublin, Brussels, Essen and Istanbul. A Hungarian NGO run by homeless people, A Város Mindenkié (The City is for All), staged protests in Budapest against the law, which threatens those living on the streets with a fine or imprisonment.
In Sep ’13 Dennis Mahurin a 58 year old homeless man who has been living in a tent in Bloomington, Illinois, since 1978 won $50,000 in scratch off ticket. Despite his win, he had no intention on moving elsewhere. His plan, buy a new tent and give $100 to each homeless guy camped out around him. He said “I always knew God had a plan for me, I just didn’t know. Now the door is starting to open. I’m paying it forward.”
Last year, through giveforward.com the internet raised $150K for a homeless man who return a woman’s lost engagment ring. The story was big and a lot of people were talking about. Many didn’t agree with giving a homeless man money. “That won’t solve his problems” they said.
“Why do people love forking over money for this kind of crap but hate paying taxes?” one said.
Another person added: “He kinda said it himself.”What I actually feel like is, ‘what has the world come to when a person who returns something that doesn’t belong to him and all this happens?It’s like people are saying that every other homeless person would have pawned the ring. Like he’s doing something so out of character that he deserves a reward.””
Another comment pretty much sums up how I personally feel about the issue:
“Yes!” exclaimed Joe Q. Public, leaping from the couch so quickly his bowl of Cheetos exploded on the floor, “another homeless man to fulfill my Weekend Warrior needs! Quickly, to The Internet! I shall donate to this man ten dollars!”
He sat down and furiously typed away at the keyboard.
“Dad,” his small child said “why are you so excited about this, dad?”
The father smiled and lifted his child onto his knee, even the room seemed to grow quiet awaiting the sage words from this wizened man.
“You see son,” the father began, “donating money to this homeless man allows me to feel like I’m doing something useful while simultaneously pretending that homelessness isn’t an actual problem. This lets me throw money at an individual man, while ignoring and not doing anything to solve the root causes of homelessness itself. It lets me pretend I solved a problem while doing nothing to ensure the root causes don’t continue to be a problem.”
The child wrinkles his nose in though. “So that’s like all those soup kitchens and battered women’s homes and shivering people in blankets on the side of the road we ignore on our way to church instead of stopping to help? Because we say that we’ll pray for them later?”
“It’s exactly like that, son.” His father said, emphasizing it with a tap to his child’s nose. “You see, actually solving big problems like this requires work, and effort and a lot of time. Time your father doesn’t have because I have a job. Also the new season of American Idol is starting, and we’ll need to watch that, so you see why we can’t do more. Even though we totally want to of course.” He added the last almost as an afterthought.
“That’s why things like this are so good for us, son. Stories like this, and that New York cop late last year who bought shoes for the homeless man. We get to share these stories on facebook, or tell our friends we donated when it comes up and this sort of self-praise really pushes away the fact that nothing was ever even remotely accomplished. ”
“And to top it all off, I’m actually going to vote for a politician in the next election who’s platform and policies actually make life more difficult for the needy. Thus, ensuring things like this continue to happen.”
“Wow dad! I can’t wait to be a Weekend Warrior just like you!” the child said, his eyes filled with wonder and excitement.
The father smiled and pulled his wallet from his pants, fishing for cash behind his seven credit cards.
“Well let’s get you started son. I’m going to give you a $50 bill and a $1 bill, and the next time you see those Salvation Army Santas ringing the bell outside the shopping mall where you’re going to buy your new Xbox, You open that wallet with pride, you think to yourself ‘gosh I wish I had something bigger’ and you give them that $1 bill with your head held high.”
Homeless Jesus - Tales of a Tenderhearted Kid 