Chamberlin never met a person he didn’t like, except for the guy on the next park bench. Staying warm was something Chamberlin had gotten good at and he didn’t appreciate the guy “borrowing” his newspaper blanket. Downtown Houston was unseasonably cold tonight and Chamberlin had worked hard to get enough newspaper to make a decent blanket. It had taken most of the evening to get the 8 or 10 sheets of paper used for a blanket and this guy wanted 4 sheets to cover up. Reluctantly, Chamberlin gave him the 4 sheets and spent the rest of the night freezing on a bench under a leafless oak tree.
When morning came Chamberlin reached under the bench that had provided a little distance between his worn out body and the hard ground. He found the bag and pulled out his journal and bible. He couldn’t remember not reading his bible in the morning, but the journal writing was something new for Chamberlin. A while back, a passer-through mentioned that it might be a good idea and that someone might turn it into a best seller and movie someday. Living on the streets and sleeping outside provided many things to write about. So Chamberlin wrote.
“This morning was Monday and the buses from the outlaying communities were starting to move into downtown with their full loads of office workers”, Chamberlin scribbled on one of the blank white pages. It had become something he enjoyed doing, because he noticed more about what was going on around him. When you are always thinking about the ridiculousness of people and what they are doing you appreciate the little things going on around you a lot more.
Chamberlin didn’t talk much. He didn’t have too. His “friends” and neighbors on the street talked enough. Chamberlin thought. He was thinker. He thought about his life and what it could have been, what it now is and he thought about other things.
Whenever Chamberlin opened the bible, God spoke to him. He wasn’t sure why God always talked to him, but he was sure glad that He was. Chamberlin would think about the things God would say and then try to act on them. He wasn’t always that good on the acting part, but for the most part God didn’t give him very hard things to do.
Chamberlin lived by a few simple principles that God showed him one morning. It was these verses that hit him between the eyes and he remembered them everyday.
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life ? “And why are you worried about clothing ? Observe how the lilies of the field grow ; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith ! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will wear for clothing?’
“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things ; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow ; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
One of the great things about not worrying was that you could appreciate your life more. It was especially true a few weeks ago during that hurricane. Living on the street doesn’t allow you to see the weather on TV very often, and so for whatever reason Chamberlin had the bad weather sort of sneak up on him. Sitting in the cutout of a building, Chamberlin rode out the storm and watched glass and rain fall all around him for hours. He wrote in the journal the next day,
“It was a crazy day here in Houston yesterday. A big storm came through and knocked the glass out of most of the buildings around me. I stayed pretty dry and out of the wind for the most part. Sometimes you know that God is going to make a point. He knocks down the stuff we worship and takes the away the things we think we own. He got my attention. I had that umbrella for years, but no more. It folded over and then gone. Flying and rolling down the street like we were in west Texas or something. Oh well, I will get another one if He wants me to have one…” to be continued…
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