Basketball on the concrete

The favorite sight of my week so far was leaving work yesterday and seeing all of the men staying in our shelter outside playing a pickup basketball game with each other. The thunk of the ball on the concrete and against the backboard, the shouts of the men as they jostled for the ball--if I closed my eyes it could have been in a squatter community in Manila, Philippines or at a park in my own neighborhood in Pasadena.

I also had the privilege today of bringing some of my own clothes that are nice but that I don't wear very often to help out one of our clients who was homeless previously and is now living in transitional housing with her son. She put in a lot of work to become trained as a hairstylist and now with the economy the way that it is, she can't find work. I've dropped off old clothes at a Goodwill before, but that's so different that digging out your nice but rarely used clothes to give to someone that you've met. It gets a wee bit closer to satisfying the conviction of my heart when I read John's words in Luke: If you have two jackets, give one to your neighbor who doesn't have one. Now I still have way more than two jackets, but knowing that some of the clothes that were previously hanging lonely in my closet will now be used by someone who really needs it--it feels like an absolute privilege to be able to give to her.